Die to Live
by Mell8
Summary: Draco, Ginny and Blaise are close so close that they would kill each other in order to survive. So they die and go into hiding to save themselves. But what happens once they are found again? Post HBP
1. Chapter 1

Die to Live

Chapter One

By Mell8

--

Memories are in _italics_. Present time is in normal script.

--

_Ginny took one last look at the small black book in her hands and slowly readied herself for the hardest thing she would ever have to do. She held the book over the porcelain bowl and dropped it into the water with a small splash. Ginny pushed the lever and sent the water swirling down the toilet bowl, carrying the book down into the depths of Hogwarts plumbing. Three words spun around on the book. Three angry words that glared at the redhead as tears started to run down her cheeks. Tom Marvolo Riddle. _

_The diary disappeared down the U-bend and Ginny ran out of the bathroom accompanied by Moaning Myrtle's yelling. The diary was gone. Tom, her only friend, had been flushed down the loo. He could not control her any longer. There would not be any more mysterious black outs after writing to Tom or waking up in an abandoned corridor to find herself covered in chicken feathers or dried blood. _

_Ginny knew that somehow Tom was forcing her to do these awful things. Through her Tom was attacking students and leaving messages on the wall. He was trying to kill people she knew. It was only a matter of time before Dumbledore, or worse, Harry, caught her doing something, even unknowingly, for Tom. Then she would be expelled and her mother would be so angry. _

_Ginny knew that the best thing for herself, her family, and for the rest of the school would be destroying the horrible diary and erasing Tom from this world. Yet, Tom was her only friend. No one else in the school would bother to talk with her. Only Harry and his friends spoke with her and that was only on rare occasions. Tom was always there, eager to listen to her problems and always so polite and helpful. It hurt to give him up. _

_Ginny started running. Tears were streaming down her face as she tried her hardest to get away from the second floor bathroom and the memories now swimming through the sewers. Without realizing it, her feet were taking her into the dungeons, away from the happiness in Gryffindor tower into the dark hidden places of Slytherin. She should have been running in the other direction. Tom still lived down in Slytherin; he just hid under a different name, Voldemort. He would never go into the tower were Harry slept. Ginny knew she should run up to Harry and tell him everything but she was afraid of the revulsion the she would see in his face once Harry knew what she had done. _

_Even at the tender age of eleven, Ginny knew that telling Harry her secret would destroy every chance she had of Harry returning the absolute love that she felt towards him. Instead she ran to the dungeons where she could hide from Harry until she was sure that she could live with the secret. _

_Ginny kept running even though she knew she was lost. She had passed the door to Snape's classroom a long time ago and now she was faced with slimy walls and no clue where to go. Ginny finally came to a stop and with a teary sigh sank down to the floor. Once she caught her breath she would try to retrace her steps. _

_Ten minutes later Ginny was still horribly lost. Her crying had stopped in favor of finding a way out of the dungeons. It was well after curfew and if Filch or a Prefect came by there was nowhere for her to hide. The corridor Ginny was walking down was a blank stretch of wall without a doorway or a secret passageway in sight. She could get into a lot of trouble being caught out here. _

_Ginny kept walking, hoping that she would find something familiar when the blank wall to her left suddenly was not very blank. The wall became semi-transparent and two people slipped through it. Draco Malfoy and Blaise Zabini. _

_She squeaked and scrambled backwards, hoping that they would walk away without seeing her. Her luck was not in. Malfoy turned to see what had squeaked and stopped short when he saw her red hair. He smirked and tapped Zabini on the shoulder. The black haired boy turned and smirked down at Ginny. _

"_Well, what do we have here?" Zabini drawled. "A little Gryffindor far away from her den. Did you know that Snakes eat little cubs like you?" Zabini glared down at Ginny. Malfoy reached up and whispered something in Zabini's ear. Ginny could almost make out the words diary and littlest Weasley. Her breath caught. How did they know? Had Tom forced her to tell them when he had been controlling her? Or, had one of their families planted the diary where they knew she would find it? _

_Zabini nodded and whispered something back but Ginny was too preoccupied with her own thoughts to focus on what he was saying. _

"_What should we do with you, little cub?" Zabini asked with Draco smirking over his shoulder. "Tell you what, we were just about to head down to the kitchens for a late night snack. You come with us while we decide." Before Ginny could do anything Zabini grabbed her left arm and Malfoy grabbed her right. They proceeded to drag her down the corridors to the kitchen. Ginny did not even bother trying to get away. She knew that the boys were stronger than her and she honestly did not really care. What Tom had been doing to her was far worse than whatever these boys could think up. _

_The house elves immediately swamped them, asking what they would like to eat. Malfoy let go of Ginny and went to talk to the house elves in private while Zabini dragged Ginny off to a table where they both sat down. Malfoy joined them a minute later. The three of them kept silent while they waited for the house elves. Ginny stared at the table wondering what the two Slytherins were going to do to her and Malfoy and Zabini looked at Ginny, Zabini with pity in his eyes. Malfoy kept his emotions hidden. _

_Finally the house elves came and put three huge slices of chocolate cake in front of them. Another house elf came carrying three huge glasses of milk on a small tray. The elves bowed and walked off and both boys eagerly dug into their cake. Ginny kept staring at the table. _

"_Eat the cake Weasley," Zabini drawled. "I wouldn't want to waste such good chocolate." _

_Ginny looked up at Zabini but he was already concentrating on his cake again. She sighed silently and picked up her fork and started to eat the cake. _

_Zabini and Malfoy finished their dessert well before Ginny was halfway through her piece. She was not sure if she could finish the rest and she stopped and looked at the boys. _

"_Do you want the rest?" she whispered, surprised that she was offering the two Slytherins anything. She pushed her plate towards them and Malfoy immediately started stuffing his face. Zabini smiled down at Malfoy and shrugged at Ginny as if he was trying to laugh about Malfoy's eating habits with the Gryffindor. _

"_Look little cub," Zabini said when Malfoy finished eating, "I will not tell you how we know about the diary, but we want you to know that you can tell us what the diary is forcing you to do. We understand what you are going through and we want to help you." _

_Ginny looked at Zabini in shock. How could two Slytherins, these two in particular, want to help her? Zabini looked open and helpful while Malfoy's face was closed and covered with a hard scowl. Ginny guessed that this had been Zabini's idea and the black boy had forced Malfoy to go along with him. _

_Ginny opened her mouth once to answer, closed it, and when she opened it again the entire story came pouring out. She told the boys everything that Tom had forced her to do and about how she had gotten rid of the diary. _

Ginny blinked and sighed as she brought herself back to the present. One of her best friends, Draco Malfoy, was running off into the Forbidden Forest with the traitor Snape not far behind him. Harry Potter, her boyfriend, was running after both of the Death Eaters, unsuccessfully trying to stop them from getting away.

Blaise walked up behind Ginny and sighed as the last bit of blond hair was lost to sight among the sprawling trees. "He made his decision," Blaise said with a grimace.

"Yes, but was it the right one?" Ginny whispered. "Is this really what will make him happy and keep his family safe?" She shook her head and turned to look at the dark boy behind her. "I wonder what he did anyway?" she asked.

"I don't know," Blaise answered with a shrug. "But I'm sure Potter knows. When you find out, tell me so I can bother Draco about it. Together we might be able to find a way to free Draco from Voldemort."

_Malfoy bent down and picked up a small black book off the floor with a shocked expression that Ginny saw him quickly erase from his pale pointed face. What was Riddle's diary doing with Harry's things? Ginny knew she had flushed it so what was Harry doing with the diary? Malfoy pretended that he thought the book was Harry's diary and waved it around menacingly while taunting Harry. Harry got the book back and Malfoy spun to glare at Ginny. _

"_I don't think Potter liked your valentine much!" he called spitefully after Ginny. She saw his glare and knew that what he really wanted to say was 'did you lie to us two nights ago?' _

Ginny shrugged at Malfoy in a fast gesture that she knew Malfoy's quick eyes could catch and disguised the movement by covering her face with her hands and running into her next class.

_That night Blaise found Ginny and pulled the small girl into the kitchen. _

"_I thought you destroyed the diary, little cub," Blaise asked quietly. _

"_I flushed it down the toilet!" Ginny whimpered, tears streaming down her face. "I don't know how Harry found it!" _

_Blaise's face darkened. "I hope Riddle doesn't try to control Potter." _

"_Oh, no!" Ginny gasped. "What if Tom tells Harry everything? Harry would hate me! I have to get the diary back." Ginny jumped up and ran from the kitchens. She quickly dried her tears and made her way to the Gryffindor common room. Hopefully Harry wouldn't be there so she could search his room for the book. _

A few hours later Harry told Ginny everything. He explained that Draco had used the vanishing cabinet to bring the Death Eaters into the castle and had been ordered by Voldemort to kill Dumbledore. Harry told everyone who was listening about what had really happened on the roof that night and everyone learned about what Snape had done.

But Ginny learned something else that night. She had found a way to save her friend.

Draco Malfoy had to die.


	2. Chapter 2

Die to Live

Chapter Two

By Mell8

--

"_Look Weasley, you have to stir counter clockwise three times and then once clockwise. If you don't the potion will spoil," Malfoy snarled at Ginny. They were sitting in a back corner of the library during the beginning of Ginny's second year. School was in full swing and studies were harder than ever. Professor Snape seemed to take particular joy in giving large, tedious assignments to his students. _

_Ginny had asked Blaise to help her with the foot long essay that was due the next day. He had agreed but when she gotten to their previously agreed upon table in the back of the library, she had found Malfoy waiting for her instead. _

_Although Ginny and Blaise had become close friends after her first year, Malfoy refused to have anything to do with the young Gryffindor. At times Blaise would drag the blond with him when Blaise wanted to meet with Ginny but Malfoy always went under protest. This was the first time Ginny had been alone with him since their eventful meeting in her first year. _

"_So I stir clockwise three times and once counter clockwise?" Ginny asked as she hid a smile behind her schoolbook. _

_Malfoy actually growled at her before sighing. "I always knew Weasleys were dim but you take the cake!" he snarled. _

"_Mmmm, cake sounds nice. Do you want to go down to the kitchens and get some chocolate cake?" Ginny asked. Her smile grew when she saw Malfoy's interest fix on her at the mention of chocolate. _

Malfoy quickly packed up his books, grabbed Ginny's hand, and pulled her all the way down to the kitchens. He sneered absentmindedly at her as he tickled the pear and went in.

_Ginny followed in happy silence. She knew that Malfoy's dislike of her was hurting Blaise and was straining their friendship. Ginny had spent most of the last week devising a way to get herself onto Malfoy's good side. The only thing she could think of was Draco's love of chocolate._

Ginny sighed, shook the memories out of her head and quickly apparated to the Leaky Cauldron. It was the summer after Draco had helped to kill Dumbledore and she was meeting Blaise so they could discuss her plan. Her mother did not know she was out and in such dangerous times Ginny doubted that her mother would ever let her youngest child out of her sight. Instead of asking for permission, Ginny had waited until she knew that her mother would be occupied for most of the day and had jumped on the opportunity to get together with Blaise. Ginny had learned to apparate from watching her brothers and, even though she was underage, she knew she could get away with illegal apparition because of the constant threat the wizarding world was under from Voldemort. The ministry was too busy looking for Death Eaters to be bothered with illegal apparition.

Blaise was waiting for her when she walked into the pub. He pulled the redhead into a tight hug and led her to a table where they could talk in private.

Ginny studied Blaise's appearance in shock. It looked like he had lost a lot of weight and was very stressed. The boy had dark circles under his eyes and was very haggard. Ginny winced in sympathy. Maybe Blaise needed to die too?

"What do you have for me little cub?" he whispered.

"First tell me how you've been," Ginny hissed back in a worried voice.

Blaise closed his eyes and took a deep steadying breath before answering. "My mother wants me to become a Death Eater. Her last rich husband just died of mysterious causes," Blaise took a second to sniff in disbelief, "and she wants someone from her family to serve Voldemort."

Ginny nodded. "Then my idea will work for you too. Look both you and Draco need to die."

Blaise opened his eyes again and stared at Ginny. He lifted one eyebrow into his hair and asked, "We need to what?"

Ginny giggled at his incredulous expression and started to explain her plan to Blaise.

"_Potter's godfather is out to kill Potter! Can you believe the irony!" Draco laughed. "Its brilliant!" _

"_No its awful," Ginny snarled. "Would you like it if your godfather was out to get you?" _

"_She's got you there Draco," Blaise smirked. "I'd be horrified if Snape were to come after me." _

"_Still, it is ironic," Draco sniffed. Ginny grumbled and threw a pillow at the laughing blond. _

"_Hey! Watch the hair," Draco gasped as he flung his arms out to guard his precious hair from being crushed under a pillow. _

_Ginny grinned evilly at Blaise and Blaise grinned back. They both grabbed a pillow and attacked a screaming Draco. Draco grabbed a pillow and counter attacked. The fight didn't end until Blaise's pillow split along the seam and feathers flew everywhere. _

_Ginny dropped her pillow and gasped for breath between giggles. _

"What's so funny?" Draco sniffed. Ginny looked up at Draco reproachfully and couldn't keep her eyes from widening. "What!" Draco gasped. "Is it my hair? I knew my hair would puff up with all the pillows!"

_Ginny giggled louder and Blaise couldn't keep his own laugh hidden. Feathers had plastered themselves to Draco's head making it look like his hair was made up of feathers instead of hair. _

_Draco grabbed a mirror and screamed girlishly before running into the bathroom to fix his ruined hair. _

"Ginny what are you doing here?" Fred asked, surprised, as Ginny dusted the soot off her robes. She had just flooed into the back room of Weasley's Wizard Wheezes with the hopes that the twins would have or could make what she needed for her plan.

"I have permission from Mum, if that's what you're asking," Ginny grumbled. "I need you to make something for me."

"What do you need Ginny?" George asked as he came over to join his twin.

"A special type of knife," she answered with a cold smile.

Ginny spent the next half hour privately explaining why she needed a knife and, without saying any names, she told the twins her plan.

"Mum's going to kill you!" the twins gasped in unison.

"I expect that she'll have to wait in line," Ginny sighed. She was going to have more people than her mother after her hide. The Ministry and the Death Eaters would want her too for what she was going to do.

"_Look," Ginny sighed and rolled over onto her stomach. Ginny had stayed the night in Draco's room as she often did whenever she was between boyfriends. All they did was sleep in the same bed and talk about their problems. It never went beyond that until now. They were having an argument instead of a nice chat. She pierced Draco with a hard glare and used her arms to push herself further off the bed so she could glare into Draco's eyes. "I'm going out with Michael Corner and I really don't want to hear why you dislike him so much." _

"_Trust me Ginny," Draco hissed, "That boy is a bad egg. He just wants to get closer to the fame that your brother gets from being friends with Potter." _

"_He cares about me! Let me make my own mistakes Draco." Ginny stood up and walked out of Draco's personal room before she really lost her temper with the blond. _

_For the rest of that year Draco refused to speak with her. Ginny guessed that she had hurt his ego by refusing to acknowledge his advise. Ginny was as stubborn as Draco. Even when she broke up with Corner she declined to tell Draco that he had been right about the boy. Of course Ginny told Blaise everything. Ginny knew that Blaise told Draco everything so Ginny knew that Draco knew how she felt. Still, it was frustrating to be separated from her friend for so long, especially because of their pig headedness. _

_It wasn't until she bat-bogeyed Draco in her flight to escape from the Inquisitorial Squad that they reconciled their differences. Draco had joined the squad to please his father and, even though Blaise had tried to talk Draco out of it, Blaise could not stop Draco without Ginny's help. _

_Draco had pulled Ginny away from the Slytherin girl that was holding her captive and forced Ginny into a separate room after saying something suggestive to Ron. Draco quickly pulled out her gag and tossed her Harry's wand. _

"_Look Ginny," he whispered, aware of the fact that there was only a door separating his voice from the rest of the students in the other room. "I didn't have a choice." _

"_You didn't have a choice about whether you were going to go around the school terrorizing people?" Ginny snarled in an equally quiet and dangerous voice. "You should have said no! Or gone to Dumbledore for help!" _

_Draco sniffed contemptuously. "Just because I'm friends with you does not mean that I'm friends with that fool Dumbledore. You are just a fluke; someone who I never would have become friends with if Blaise had not forced me." _

_Ginny's face and ears went bright red as her anger skyrocketed. She whipped out Harry's wand and pointed it at a now cowering Draco. Ginny studied him for a moment as her anger cooled before sighing. _

"_You really are a coward. You can't say no to your father because you are too afraid of the repercussions and now you can't say no to me because I'm pointing a wand at your face." Ginny shook her head sadly and started walking towards the door. "If you don't come talk to me before this school year is over I will jinx you even worse." She bat-bogeyed him and ran out the door._

Ginny hoisted her bag back onto her shoulder and looked up at the huge mansion in the middle of the sprawling grounds and smiled. Today was the day that Draco and Blaise were going to die. Blaise had planned all of the financial parts and Ginny had planned all of the physical parts. All they needed to do was convince Draco that the best thing for his family and himself would be for the blond to die.

Ginny's smile grew as she started up the driveway. By this time tomorrow the entire wizarding world would know that Draco Malfoy, Blaise Zabini and Ginevra Weasley were dead.


	3. Chapter 3

Die to Live

Chapter Three

By Mell8

--

_Ginny walked into Draco's private rooms and stopped short. Someone was crying! Ginny quickly rushed into the room and saw something that utterly shocked her. Draco Malfoy, the Draco Malfoy, was crying on his bed in Blaise's arms. Ginny dropped the books she had brought with her to study and ran over to the bed. _

"_What's wrong Draco?" she whispered and rubbed him gently on the back. Ginny climbed onto the bed and sat down next to the crying boy. _

"_I can't do it Ginny," he sobbed and clutched at her like Ginny was his security blanket. _

"_Can't do what?" Ginny asked. Draco ignored her question on continued sobbing. Ginny looked up at Blaise for answers. _

"_I don't know either," Blaise said with a small shake of his head. _

"_If I don't do it he'll kill my mother!" Draco wailed piteously. Ginny's eyes widened and she slipped her arms around Draco's waist. Blaise cuddled the crying boy to his chest. They let Draco cry himself to sleep in their intertwined arms before falling asleep themselves. _

_When Ginny and Blaise woke up in the morning Draco was gone. _

_They never saw Draco cry again, but both Ginny and Blaise knew that there was something wrong with Draco. He looked ill and there were dark circles under his eyes. Plus, Draco's skin was gray from exhaustion. Whenever they would try to confront Draco about what was wrong, he would always brush them off. _

_It wasn't until the very end of the year that they figured out what Draco had been doing. _

"Weasley!" Draco gasped with a raised eyebrow. "What are you doing here? It isn't safe to come to a Death Eater's mansion."

Ginny smiled at Draco and shrugged. "Blaise invited me."

"But what if a Death Eater sees you here?" Draco asked with a raised eyebrow. "Don't you care what your family would say?"

"Its better if someone sees me here," Ginny smirked. "It will help with our plan."

"What plan?" Draco asked quietly.

"Let me in and take me to Blaise and we'll explain everything." Ginny smiled slightly at the confused boy and pushed past him into the huge house.

"_You're dating who?" Draco screamed. The owlry echoed with Draco's angry voice and Ginny quickly shhhhed him as his voice flew across the grounds. The last thing Ginny wanted was to be discovered alone with another boy right after she started dating the boy of her dreams. _

"_Harry Potter," Ginny whispered and stepped back as Draco glowered at her. "He kissed me after the Quidditch match," she added. "And Ron is okay with it," she said even more quietly as Draco's incensed look grew. "And I've liked him for so long," she finished in a barely audible voice. "Look Draco," Ginny started in a stronger voice, "it's not like you want to go out with me and you're not my brother so you shouldn't have a say in who I date. You're my best friend, Draco. I value your opinions but I think you're biased when it comes to Harry." _

"_Fine," Draco snarled in a dark voice that sent shivers down Ginny's spine. "Go out with Potter. Get yourself mixed up in his schemes to save the world from evil. Just don't come crying back to me when Potter chooses saving the world over a relationship with you." _

"_Harry would never-" _

"_Just wait Ginny," Draco hissed. "He will." Draco glared at a speechless Ginny before spinning and rushing out of the tower. _

Ginny didn't have time to be amazed at the beautiful house as she followed Draco to where Blaise was waiting. The floo would be closing in fifteen minutes and they would need at least five minutes to convince/force Draco to agree to his own death. Draco opened the door to a spacious parlor and followed Ginny into the room. Blaise was the first thing she spotted and Ginny nodded quickly to him to say that everything was ready. Blaise nodded back and smiled.

"What's going on?" Draco snarled. "Why are you nodding at each other and what plan was Ginny hinting at?"

"Sit down Draco," Blaise said with a sigh. "We want to get you away from the Death Eaters and Voldemort without endangering your family and ourselves."

"You found a way to get me out of this!" Draco gasped and leaned forward eagerly.

"Well," Blaise shrugged, "actually our little cub did but I think it will work."

Blaise looked at Ginny and she smiled at him. "You see Draco," Ginny said quietly, "all you have to do is die."

"_Draco was right!" Ginny wailed as she ran to Blaise and flung herself into his arms. _

_Blaise lifted a dark eyebrow and looked down at the redhead sobbing in his arms. "What was he right about little cub?" _

"Draco said that Harry would leave me so he could save the world," Ginny said as her sobbing increased. "Harry just broke up with me. He said, 'Voldemort uses people his enemies are close to. Think how much danger you'll be in of we keep this up,' and then he walked out of my life without looking back. I really love Harry but he can be so noble sometimes. I would have preferred to continue going out even if we had to keep it a secret. Instead Harry took the easy way out of our relationship and broke up with me," Ginny whispered, her tears falling faster now. "Why did Draco have to be right?"

Ginny looked around her at the bloody scene in satisfaction. Draco lay in the corner, his eyes sightless and the gaping hole in his neck dripping away his life into an already large puddle of warm red blood. It looked like Draco had put up a fight judging by the intense slices that marred his body. Blaise lay on his side, his eyes permanently wide in shock. The knife that killed him was still sticking out of his chest and a small river of blood was flowing down the handle to pool on the floor. His diary lay by his hand. It was open to the last written on, blood-spattered, page.

_Dear Diary, _

Today Draco and I are going to ask Ginevra Weasley if she will finally join the Death Eaters and bring another pure blood to Voldemort's noble cause. We have been working on her for months, trying to show her the glory and power of becoming a Death Eater. Draco has invited her over for tea when we will ask her if she will join the winning side as Draco already has and I am planning to. Ah! A house elf has just announced that Ginevra has started walking up the driveway so I shall put you away for now, diary, and I will be sure to write more once the decision is made.

_Blaise Zabini_

Ginny smiled coldly and bent to pick up the diary. She quickly picked up a quill and wrote another entree into the diary.

_Zabini asked me his question and I suppose you could say I declined. I think he received the message, especially considering the fact that a knife in his chest accompanied my no. Sadly Malfoy was present at the time so I'm afraid he needed to receive my answer as well. He fought bravely but he finally succumbed to my rather violent answer. I know I should be appalled at my actions, but I believe that they deserved their deaths. After all, it was Malfoy's fault that Dumbledore was murdered. In repentance for my grave act I will remove myself from this world and join these two Death Eaters in the ever after. My own death should make up for the stain on my soul that I received for committing these murders. I have taken both Malfoy and Zabini to a safe place where their bodies can be buried in unmarked graves. Please do not bother to look for either the Death Eaters bodies or my body. You will never be able to find them. _

_Sincerely, _

_Ginevra Molly Weasley_

Ginny smirked, set down the diary, and pulled out her wand. "Mobilicorpus," she called. Draco and Blaise rose into the air and Ginny directed them into the fireplace with her wand. She took a large handful of floo powder and in a few spinning seconds all three teenagers were gone.

III

Narcissa Malfoy walked into the parlor where her son was entertaining guests carrying a pot of strong tea and three teacups. A house elf carefully pushed open the door for his mistress and stood aside to allow her to pass through the doors unhindered. Narcissa promptly screamed, dropped the tea and ran from the room.

"Get Bella and Severus," she snapped at the frazzled looking elf. "Do not touch this room." Narcissa found a chair in the hallway and carefully sank into it in a dead faint.

Snape and Bellatrix arrived at exactly the same time, goaded by the house elf's pleading to come help his mistress. The sight that greeted them was a shock. Narcissa had artfully fainted across a chintz chair outside of a room so covered in blood and broken pieces of furniture that it was nearly unrecognizable as the Malfoy's second best parlor. While Bellatrix went to help her sister, Snape carefully navigated through the two huge puddles of blood and the smaller spatters around the puddles looking around for clues. When he found the diary he stopped short and began to read. His lip slowly curled in anger even as his face paled in surprise.

"Who dares to invade the Malfoy household and hurt Cissa?" Bellatrix snarled through the door. Narcissa was just starting to wake.

"It is no mystery Bellatrix," Snape answered. "Ginevra Weasley left her signature right here."

III

Safe, she was safe. Ginny looked around at the sparse muggle room she had rented and smiled. "Yes," she thought quietly, "this will do nicely." With a small serene smile on her face, Ginevra Weasley put a knife up to her throat and quickly pulled the knife across. Blood flew across the room and began to drip down the gaping hole in her neck. The blade dropped from her nerveless fingers and Ginny's body began to tip backwards. With the last of her effort Ginny forced herself to fall forward. The last thing she saw before her eyes blurred over was a large puddle of water rushing up to meet her. Ginny smiled, made sure that she held out her neck so the entire body part would get soaked and allowed her body to die.

III

Miles away a scream rang through Ottery St. Catchpole. A red headed man sprinted from his tinkering shed towards the scream as six other red heads, a brown haired girl, and a black haired boy ran in from the back yard they had just been de-gnoming. They all stopped short in from of a plump red headed lady sitting on the couch desperately clutching a small clock with far too many hands. All the hands were pointed towards home save one smaller hand with the picture of a small smiling red headed girl. This hand, the one that seemed most important to all of the people gathered in the room, was pointed at dead.

Arthur Weasley jumped up from staring at the clock with his mouth hanging open and looked wildly around the room. "Does anyone know where Ginny is supposed to be?" he whispered quietly. At the saddened blank looks from all of the family, except for the twins who were clutching at each other and hiding their faces from everyone else, Mr. Weasley gulped. "I'll go to the Ministry. There must be an explanation for this. Ginny is probably just in a lot of trouble and the clock mixed up. When I return with Ginny we'll be able to explain everything."

Mr. Weasley apparated with a pop and did not return for hours. When he walked into the sitting room he looked disheveled and sick.

"Dad," Ron whispered. "Where's Ginny?"

"I've just returned from the Malfoys," Arthur answered, "and it seems that Ginny was just there." He held up a hand to stifle the accusations that immediately flew from his sons' mouths. "I don't know if the evidence was planted or not but it appears that Ginny killed Draco Malfoy and Blaise Zabini then took her own life."

"Then where's her body?" Bill whispered tearfully.

"That's the thing," Mr. Weasley answered. "Nobody knows."


	4. Chapter 4

Die to Live

Chapter Four

By Mell8

--

Ginny sighed and quickly drew a bath the Muggle way for her two friends. They couldn't use magic any longer because they were in hiding and magic could be traced. Instead they were forced to live like Muggles. That small detail had been the only drawback, in Draco's opinion, to their plan. Fortunately for the three of them, Ginny knew a lot about Muggles because of her father, Harry and Hermione. She had been teaching Blaise about different Muggle things ever since he had agreed to their plan. Draco was the only one who was going to have a difficult time living in the Muggle world.

The bath filled so slowly that Ginny didn't understand how Muggles had the patience to wait for so long before they could get clean. At the Burrow the tub would fill in seconds with sweet smelling bubbles if Ginny wanted them. Once it finally filled Ginny grabbed Blaise's prone body and levered him into the bath with his clothes on. Water spilled over the sides and Ginny's feet got drenched.

Ruining the bottoms of her pajamas was worth it because as she watched, the blood that covered his entire chest disappeared; the blood didn't wash away into the water, it vanished. The knife still imbedded in the boy's chest fell out into the water and shrank to the size of Ginny's finger and Blaise's wound healed before her eyes.

The black boy sat up and groaned. "That was awful little cub," he grumbled as he rubbed his newly healed chest. "Where's Draco?" he asked as he looked around the bathroom.

Ginny blushed. "I left him in the fireplace," she said quietly. "He was too heavy to carry all the way to the bathroom," she grumbled.

Blaise snickered. "I'll have to tell him you said that. Draco'll have a fit." Blaise stood up, grabbed a towel, and got out of the bathtub. "Let me get changed and then I'll get Draco."

"No magic!" Ginny called after him with a smile.

Ginny sighed and shook her head. The next few months hiding out in the muggle world were going to be very fun.

III

"I'm terribly sorry Mr. Weasley, Lady Malfoy, Lady Zabini, but I'm afraid that the evidence is inconclusive." A stuffy Auror was standing in the middle of the destroyed parlor. He kept tugging on his tie and looking at his watch as if this was the last investigation he wanted. No one wanted to get between the Weasleys and the Malfoys, especially when their children were involved. The fact that the Auror was standing in between the head of the Weasley family and Lady Malfoy was very hazardous to his health; the Auror knew that. Plus, even more hazardous to his well being was the fact that he didn't really know if Ginevra Weasley had actually killed those two boys. It was written clearly on paper, in her handwriting, that she had. Yet these days it was too easy for a dark wizard to use a spell to copy her handwriting. As far as he was concerned, both the Malfoy boy and the Zabini boy were playing an elaborate joke. There were other clues that led to this as well. The blood spatter patterns did not match up with some of the crushed ornaments, and how was it possible that a priceless set of ivory chairs had been turned into mere scraps when Lady Malfoy was sure that they had been in the other room?

Something was not right at this scene but the Auror was unwilling to admit that to the grieving families because he really did not have enough evidence to say that all three children were not dead. There was enough blood on the floor for at least one person to have bled to death twice and Morgana herself had originally spelled the Weasley's magical clock. There was also the small fact that all three teens had disappeared. All the Auror could do was offer his condolences to the anguished families and get out of the case as soon as possible. It would be better, he though wisely, to let the three children stay dead rather that incite their families into a war to protect the honor of their children.

"I will bring my findings to the Minister of Magic but I'm afraid that at this time there is nothing he can do to further this investigation. Perhaps once the war has ended we will have more Aurors to spare for this case. Please forgive me and have a good afternoon." The Auror walked out of the room as quickly as he could without appearing to run.

Arthur Weasley followed seconds later after nodding politely, albeit stiffly, towards the two matriarchs in the room.

"The Weasley's have absolutely no clue where their daughter is," a cold, slimy voice hissed as Severus Snape glided into the room. He had been watching the proceedings from a safe distance.

"Surely this Ginevra girl told her family that she was about to kill my son!" Narcissa snarled.

"I'm afraid that the Weasley family is as shocked and upset as you," Snape hissed.

"Have you seen the Weasley's add in the Daily Prophet?" Lady Zabini sniffed. "'Lost, small girl with red hair. Goes by the name of Ginny Weasley.' Who in their right mind would call a girl Ginny?"

"But my son," Narcissa whispered. "What about my son?"

"The Dark Lord has offered to conduct his own investigation. He will find Miss Weasley and he will get the answers we seek," Snape hissed.

III

"_You see Draco," Ginny said quietly, "all you have to do is die." _

"_And how will dieing save me from eternal servitude to an evil bastard who I only agreed to join to save my mother's life" Draco drawled in a curious voice. "Don't get my hopes up just to dash them on the rocks Ginny." _

"_We've got it all figured out," Blaise jumped in quickly before Ginny lost her temper with Draco and refused to help him. "Ginny found special magical knives that cut just as easily as regular knives but, when you put water on the injury the blood and the cut disappear. It is an elaborate illusion that works even on death blows." _

"_Plus," Ginny added with a smile, "the magic involved erases your life signature from the wizarding world if there is a death blow. If someone were to put a search spell out for you or your bodies the spell would malfunction because there won't be enough of a trace of you to follow." _

"_And the knives will leave behind enough blood to leave a strong sign of your death. All we have to do is plant a little more evidence," Blaise whipped out his diary and handed it over to Draco. Written on the last page was Blaise's last entree, and underneath that, Ginny's piece. Draco read it with a lifted eyebrow. _

"_This may just work," the blond said with a small smirk. "Let me go get some more furniture to destroy while you two start smashing everything else in this room. Make it look like we fought for our lives." _

_Ginny and Blaise nodded and smiled. They were going to die and at the same time be saved. _


	5. Chapter 5

Die to Live

Chapter Five

By Mell8

--

Ginny yawned and opened her eyes with a small smile. Blaise was in the shower, which meant that Draco was getting dressed in the closet. That also meant that she needed to hurry and start breakfast so she would have enough time to eat and shower before going to work.

"_Ok," Blaise said with forced cheerfulness, "This is our new home. Let me give you the tour!" Ginny had already seen the small apartment Blaise had rented with the remainder of the money and was eagerly waiting to see what Draco's reaction would be. "Now, this is the kitchen," Blaise said with an extravagant wave of his hand to show the abysmally small, dirty kitchen. Ginny would have it cleaned as soon as they had enough money to buy decent cleaning supplies. At the moment they were penniless. _

"_This is the living room!" Draco paled when he walked through the arched doorway. The room was small, probably closet sized compared to the wealth Draco was used to. There was one small, musty three-seat couch in a corner and a television that had seen better days. The table was barely big enough to fit the three chairs they squished around it but it was still almost too big for the room. A miniscule fireplace sat in the corner. It was filled with soot and had a residue of floo powder on the grate. The room was disgusting even by what Ginny was used to, growing up in one of the poorest wizarding families. _

_Blaise led them to the last doorway in the house. The door was closed and Ginny could see Draco eyeing it hopefully. Ginny almost smirked when she realized that Draco was probably expecting three separate bedrooms with individual baths. The only issue was that Draco had already seen their only bathroom. It was where he had woken up when Blaise had tossed him into the bathtub. _

_Blaise forced open the door and walked in ahead of Draco so he could get out of the way. There really wasn't enough room in the hallway for three people, let alone one person trying to squeeze past another person in the small space. Ginny could hear him gasp in dismay and she smirked as she followed the boys into their one bedroom. _

"_So where will you two sleep?" Draco asked quietly in a voice that was slightly panicked. Ginny thought he was actually serious. _

"_No Draco," Blaise said with a sigh. "We have to share the bed. There's a closet over there for our clothes. It even has some shelves." _

_Draco looked around the room in panic. They had one bed and it took up the entire room. Blaise had bought the bed when they still had a few galleons to their names. He had gotten the biggest bed the muggle shop could offer. They didn't have any dressers or nightstands because the bed took up all the room. They would literally be forced to climb over the bed to get to the closet. _

"_So I'm supposed to share my bed with both of you?" Draco wailed piteously. Ginny's smirk grew. "I mean I can understand sharing with Blaise but with Ginny? She's a girl!" _

"_Look Draco," Ginny said quietly as she tried to control her mirth. "Once we paid off the people in the floo department to conveniently forget that the floo in your house was used, all we had left was enough to buy this apartment, furnish it with the horrible stuff you see, and to pay off my twin brothers for the use of their remarkable knives and for fake muggle identities. We only have enough money left to buy food for a week." _

_Draco's eyes widened comically. "How much money did you take out of Gringotts? This is very poor planning!" _

"_I took out fifty thousand galleons Draco," Blaise said with a sigh. "Any more would have looked suspicious to our families. The floo department took thirty five thousand galleons and this apartment cost the equivalent of two thousand galleons, and the bed cost another thousand. The twins needed the ten thousand galleons for the knives and the muggle things like this drivers license (whatever that is) so they could pay off their supplier. Plus there were the rest of the furnishings. We only have about one thousand galleons left." _

_Draco sat on the bed as his knees gave out in shock. "What are we supposed to do?" he moaned. "How are we supposed to hide for years, if necessary, if we don't have enough money to get by?" _

"_Blaise has a job working in a pizza parlor down the street," Ginny said quietly. "I've submitted applications for jobs in a lot of the stores. Once you get a job, Draco, we'll be able to get by comfortably." _

_Draco glared at both of them angrily. "Malfoy's do not get jobs." _

_Ginny and Blaise left the room to let Draco sulk. Ginny knew that eventually, Draco would get a job. It just depended on how stubborn he was. _

_Their first night sleeping in the same bed was very interesting. When all three of them were still in Hogwarts they had shared Draco's huge bed in his private room but they only slept together when they were up late studying and fell asleep on Draco's bed surrounded by their books. This was very different. _

_Once they had gotten into their nightclothes and had brushed their teeth, all three of the teenagers turned and stared at the bed. Draco's eyes were a little wider than normal and Blaise looked resigned. Only Ginny was unaffected because she knew that since she was the girl, the boys would give her plenty of room on her side of the bed. _

"_Lets get this over with," Draco growled unhappily. _

_With a sigh, Blaise climbed onto the bed and lay down in the middle. Draco took the edge closer to the door and Ginny took the side against the wall. They all closed their eyes and tried to sleep. _

_Five minutes later there was a thump and a grumbled "oww". The boys felt Ginny roll over and there was another thump and "oww". Ginny shifted again and promptly hit the wall with her knee. "Oww". The boys ignored her. _

"_Eeep!" This time Blaise squeaked and rolled closer to Ginny. Draco unconsciously moved his foot and Blaise "eeep"ed again. _

_Draco sighed and rolled over to hide his head under his pillow. Thump, "oww". Draco buried himself further into his pillow and rolled over again. Bam. _

_Ginny and Blaise looked up from their uncomfortable positions in the bed and couldn't help smirking. Draco sat on the floor from where he had fallen out of the bed. _

"_That's it!" Draco snarled. "Ginny, stop hitting the wall-" _

"_I didn't mean it!" Ginny wailed. "I'm just not used to being near the wall!" _

"_- and Blaise why do you keep squeaking?" _

"_Your feet are cold!" Blaise whimpered. _

"_Ginny, why don't you take this side of the bed. Then you won't hit the wall," Draco said quietly after scowling at Blaise for not liking his feet. _

"_I don't want to fall off the bed!" Ginny gasped. "That would hurt more than the wall!" _

"_And I don't want to be near your feet any more," Blaise grumbled. _

_Draco sighed and rubbed his head tiredly. "All right, Ginny, do you mind sleeping in the middle?" _

"_I guess not." _

"_Good. Blaise switch places with Ginny." Ginny slid into the middle of the bed and Blaise took the side near the wall. Without any more mishaps the three were finally able to sleep. _

_Ginny woke first and immediately wished she was still dreaming. Both Blaise and Draco had somehow managed to roll closer to her during the night. Ginny slept on her side and apparently, so did Blaise and Draco. The black boy had his front plastered against Ginny's back and one arm was around Ginny's waist. Ginny was using Draco's arm as a pillow and, though she was further away from Draco than she was Blaise, Ginny's legs were tangled up with Draco's. It was literally impossible to tell were her legs ended and Draco's began. _

_Ginny blushed and quickly feigned sleep when she felt Blaise stir from behind her. She felt Blaise carefully pull away and felt him wake Draco who untangled himself from Ginny's limbs. _

_Draco got out of bed and Blaise gently shook Ginny. "Time to wake up little cub," he whispered. _

_After their first fateful night in their new apartment life began to settle down. Ginny got a job working in the grocery store. They got something called a discount because she worked there. As far as Ginny could tell, this discount made the food she bought less expensive. They also got free pizzas every once in a while from Blaise. Draco still refused to work. _

_Even with the discounts and free pizzas they still spent all of their pay every week. Plus, the extra thousand they had tucked away was dwindling as well. Sometimes they were so short on money that Ginny could only buy food for two people instead of the necessary three. _

_Draco finally gave in and decided to get a job the night that Ginny served potato soup that was more water than soup. Draco refused to eat it but, once he found out that the only other food they had at the moment was a box of cereal and half a gallon of milk for breakfast, and found out that Ginny didn't think they would have any money for dinner the next day, he stood up from their miniscule table stalked out of the apartment. _

_He came back an hour later with a smile on his face. "I've just been hired as manager for the clothing shop down the street. I'll be getting a hundred an hour plus free clothing for my immediate family and me." Ginny stopped washing the dishes to stare at Draco. Even after working at their respective jobs for months, she and Blaise had only been getting minimum wage. _

"_Great job, Draco!" Blaise said happily. "I always knew that you would be good at business. We'll have pizza tomorrow night to celebrate!" _

_Ginny smiled happily. _

_Their first year passed and they soon got into a cycle. The boys would wake first, untangle themselves from however they had wrapped their bodies around Ginny, and would take turns showering and getting ready. Ginny would get up, make breakfast, eat her own breakfast, and would get ready for work while the boys were stuffing their faces. They went to work, came home and while Ginny made dinner, Draco paid the bills and Blaise made their bag lunches for the next day. It became repetitive after a while but it worked and they were happy. _

Draco stumbled into the room first. He was yawning widely but had somehow managed to get his jeans on even though he was only half awake. His work shirt was slung over his arm so Ginny could see his impressive six-pack. Even five years after his last Quidditch practice Draco had not lost his toned body. Fortunately five years of living with Draco and Blaise, who also had a washboard stomach, had erased all of Ginny's previous drooling spells. Instead she ignored the fact that seeing either of her boys half naked tightened something low in her body and went on with her life as usual.

Ginny slid the first omelet onto a plate and took two bagels out of the toaster. She handed them to the sleepy blond who lazily waved his hand in thanks. The years in the muggle world had helped to improve Draco's attitude immensely. He smiled every once in a while and even said nice things to Ginny. It was a vast improvement from the scowling angry teen he had been at seventeen. Being twenty-two was good for Draco.

Ginny had Blaise's food waiting for him when he finally stumbled out of the room following the intoxicating smell of breakfast. Ginny could feel her stomach flip when she saw that the top button of Blaise's jeans was undone and a lot of skin was showing. She carefully composed her face and smiled down at him.

Ginny made herself breakfast and sat down to join them. "I'm going grocery shopping today during my lunch hour." Ginny announced. "Is there anything you want me to buy?" She asked quietly. Draco opened his mouth eagerly and Ginny quickly held up her hand to forestall what Draco was about to say. "I'm getting you chocolate Draco. Is there anything else we need?"

"More shampoo for the bathroom," Blaise said smiling across the table at the red head. "I used up the last of it this morning." Ginny nodded and added shampoo to the list in her head.

When they finished Draco put his shirt on and Blaise buttoned his pants while Ginny put their dishes into the dishwasher (another odd muggle contraption that had confounded Ginny until she had seen someone else use it on the TV).

"I'll see you both for dinner." Ginny carefully reached up on her toes and planted a small kiss on each of her boys' cheeks. They left and Ginny smiled happily. Ginny grabbed her purse and walked out of the flat with a reminiscent smile on her face. In their five years together the three of them had had a lot of fun. The one time Ginny had caught the flu both boys had stayed up all night to make sure she was all right. That had been the only time Ginny had gotten the bed to herself.

On Blaise's twentieth birthday they had gone to a nearby muggle pub and had stumbled home one night and had collapsed into a big puppy pile on the bed without any regard to personal space. Ginny had a lot of fun berating the boys for their hangovers and had almost been killed when the boys had attacked her to get her to shut up and stop making their headaches worse.

She remembered the one time Blaise had splurged and bought blue hair dye. Draco had been pissed until he realized that it was muggle dye and it came out in five washings. The vain boy had spent an hour in the shower washing and rewashing his hair.

The best part was that the entire time, they had been together.

Ginny walked into the grocery store, put on her apron and went to her cashier station to begin work. She smiled at the first person in line and began to ring up their groceries. She almost wished that their lives in hiding would never end.


	6. Chapter 6

Die to Live

Chapter Six

By Mell8

--

"Hmmm, should I get chocolate or vanilla?" Ginny mused quietly. Then she almost smacked herself in the head for her stupidity. "If I don't get chocolate Draco will kill me." She giggled quietly and grabbed a box of cake mix off the shelf. Ginny smiled serenely to herself and moved on down the aisle to pick up some chocolate frosting.

When she had finished her shopping Ginny walked up to the front desk to talk to her manager. She needed to ask for her annual day off tomorrow. The next day was the day that Draco, Blaise, and Ginny had all died six years ago. They had celebrated their death every year since with a party and gifts. Ginny always made a cake, Blaise always brought home something from the pizza parlor and Draco brought home something special from his shop. Together they laughed and cried about their fate and wondered what life would have been like if they had remained in the wizarding world.

Draco would probably be dead at the Order of the Phoenix's hands because of what he did to Dumbledore. Blaise would have been killed by one of Voldemort's subordinates because he would not become a Death Eater. Ginny would have been forced to morn the loss of her friends in private because her family would have been overjoyed if they knew that Draco and Blaise were dead. After all, to the Order and her family, Draco and Blaise were just two more Death Eaters. No one knew about her deep friendship with the two Slytherin boys.

So, even if Ginny couldn't see any of her family and friends and if Draco and Blaise couldn't see their mothers, in the long run, it was better for them to remain dead.

Ginny hummed quietly as she carried her package of goodies down the back hall to her managers' office. She could barely see over the top of the bag but was able to maneuver well enough to avoid all of the other people walking past her. Ginny knew that she would be skipping down the hall if she hadn't been holding the bag. She was that excited about their party. They always managed to have fun together even with their losses hanging over their heads and Ginny treasured all of the time she could have with her two boys.

Last year they had talked about their past and all of the funny things that had happened to them six years ago. Ginny didn't know what they were going to do this time but she hoped that it would be as fun as last year. The first year they had celebrated, Ginny had spent the time crying over the loss of her family. It hadn't been much fun. She was determined to make this party memorable.

Ginny stopped walking in front of her manager's door and was shifting the bag so she could get one hand free to knock. She froze in place, a terrified expression on her face, when she heard the voices arguing behind the door.

"You must have seen her!"

"I can assure you, Auror Weasley, I have not seen any small girls with red hair," her manager answered back quietly.

"No! We followed her wand signature exactly. Her wand was used here six years ago before she disappeared. You must have seen a small girl with red hair doing magic!" Ron was standing on the other side of the door arguing with her manager. The manager who had hired her and definitely knew that she was a small girl with red hair. As far as she knew, he didn't know she could perform magic, but she hadn't known that her manager knew about the existence of magic either. This could be very bad.

"I am positive, Auror Weasley, Auror Potter, that I have not seen the girl you are looking for."

"Very well," Harry's voice answered calmly. "We will be back soon so if your memory happens to refresh itself, please come and tell us."

They were leaving! Her brother Ron and Harry Potter were going to walk right out the door and run into her!

Twin cracks of disapparation sounded inside the office and the door opened quietly. Ginny stood completely still, hoping that it wasn't one of the Aurors walking out of the door.

"Ginny, I can see your hair over that bag." Her manager smiled down at her. "Don't worry, I won't tell your Auror friends where you are." Ginny opened her mouth to ask him why but he held up a finger. "You need to go home to your boys. Take your day off like you always do around now and I'll talk to you when you come back." He gently grabbed Ginny by her shoulder and turned her towards the exit. "Enjoy your day off and please bring both of the boys when you return. We have much to discuss." Her manager gave Ginny a push on her back to get her moving and retreated back to his office. He shut the door behind him with a final sounding bang and Ginny sighed. The boys were going to kill her.

Ginny had never been house shopping before but she decided that she liked it. Unfortunately, she couldn't go into any of the huge houses to look around in. She had a very limited budget and even less time. She needed a cheap place to live for all three of them by the end of the week. The mansions were way outside of their budgets and they would take far too much time to finalize the buy. Ginny and Blaise had planned for their deaths at the end of this week. She needed to buy their house by tomorrow.

_Ginny was currently being led though a two-bedroom house with a modest kitchen and a nice living room. The boys would be forced to share a room but the rest of the house was nice enough to make up for that. Plus the house was well within their approximated price range. It was only about five thousand galleons. Blaise had told her to look for something equivalent to seven thousand galleons or less. He believed that if she kept in this price range they would have enough to continue living comfortably for at least two years. _

_Ginny smiled at the sales lady who was showing her the house and nodded politely. "Let me go home and speak with my roommates and I will tell you tomorrow if we decide on buying." _

_The sales lady shook Ginny's hand. "Very well then. I will see you tomorrow." _

_Ginny left but she was sure that she would be back the next day to buy the house. _

_Five minutes later she was following a house elf to the parlor where Blaise was waiting for her. They were going to finalize their plans over tea. They both wanted to make sure that everything was perfect before they told Draco about their plans. If something wasn't up to the blond's specifications, the boy might decide not to join his two friends in hiding. Ginny walked into the parlor to find Blaise pacing worriedly in front of the fireplace. _

"_Ginny! You're here! You didn't finalize any deals did you?" he gasped out. He ran over to her and gently gripped her shoulders. _

"_No. I haven't spent any of our money." She shook her head quietly and took a step away from Blaise. "Why? What happened?" _

_Blaise sighed and collapsed into a chair. "Your brothers needed another thousand to keep their suppliers quiet and the floo company took way more money to convince than I thought. We are short on funds. The budget for our new home is now around three thousand galleons." _

_Ginny gasped. "Oh! That means that the lovely place I had picked out is way outside of our price range. I need to keep looking!" _

"_I'm afraid that we won't be able to find something that is up to Draco's standards with so little money," Blaise groaned. "The point of this plan is to save Draco from servitude to a evil murderer. If he doesn't want to go along with us-" _

"_We just won't tell him about the house we buy. What he doesn't know won't hurt him, or us." Ginny sighed and ran a hand through her hair. "Come on Blaise. We need to go looking for our new place to live." _

_After searching for the entire day and most of the next they finally decided that they needed to lower their standards. Finding a house in their price range was proving impossible. In the end they were forced to buy a decrepit old apartment in a not so good neighborhood. They finalized the deal with a dingy sewer rat like man who greedily took their money and disappeared. _

_Blaise and Ginny sighed sadly and looked around their new home. "Draco is going to kill us." _

Ginny was busy making their cake when Draco returned home. He had a number of packages under his arms that he quickly went to dump in their bedroom before returning to the kitchen. Ginny ignored him in favor of pouring the batter into the baking tins. She had lost some of the bounce in her step since her odd conversation earlier but was still very excited about their party.

Draco returned just as Ginny was putting the cake in the oven. He watched as she tossed the dishes into the sink to be cleaned by someone later.

Ginny sighed. There was clearly something on his mind. The blond was never this quiet unless he had something important to say. Once she was done wiping down the counters he came up behind her and wrapped his arms around her stomach.

"Ginny, we need to talk," he whispered into her ear before gently kissing the side of her neck.

"I know," she sighed and leaned back into his embrace. "I have something important to tell you as well."

The front door banged open and Blaise bounced into the kitchen. The dark boy was practically jumping out of his skin with excitement. Ginny felt Draco stiffen behind her and she knew why. Blaise was only this excited when he was hiding something.

"What's this?" Blaise asked loudly. "How come Draco gets to hug you and not me?"

Ginny smiled at Blaise and, without stepping out of Draco's arms, enveloped Blaise in her arms. He kissed her cheek gently and breathed in her scent.

"Lets talk about this after we eat," Ginny sighed. "You both need to help me decorate the cake!" She could feel the boys smile and they gently pulled away from each other.

It was nearing midnight when they finally finished eating and playing. All three of them were sitting around their small table with the remains of their fun scattered around them. None of them were smiling.

Ginny looked at her boys and shrugged. "I'll go first. I heard Harry and Ron talk to my boss today." She expected the boys to be surprised by they just looked resigned.

"I saw two of your brothers in my shop today," Draco said next. "They didn't recognize me but it's only a matter of time."

"At least two Aurors were in the restaurant today. They were asking questions about us." Blaise whispered quietly.

"What's going on?" Ginny sobbed quietly. "Why are they here now?"

"Isn't it obvious?" Draco sighed. "The war is over. The Order won and now the Weasley's want their sister back. Our quiet life in hiding is over."

"They have come for us."


	7. Chapter 7

Die to Live

Chapter Seven

By Mell8

--

It was simple. The clues added up so nicely. Harry didn't understand how the Ministry had been unable to figure out the biggest mystery murder ever to be committed in the Wizarding world when everything needed to solve it was right out in the open. The floo department just happened to lose the records of floo trips at exactly the time of the murders, the lack of bodies, and the missing funds from both the Malfoy and Zabini coffers. Plus there was the general oddity of the scene of the crime. Too much furniture and a lack of blood splatters were the most obvious mistakes made in the site. All one had to do was a little research to find out that the money that had disappeared had been changed into Muggle money which was then spent. They followed up the money to the floo department and to a Muggle town. Then Harry had his team of Aurors check the town for any use of magic in the last six years. Ginny's and Zabini's wands had been used to apparate into the town a few times before they disappeared. Harry knew that he would find at least a trace of Ginny in the town and hopefully that trace would lead them to her or at minimum, her body.

All he wanted for the Weasley family was closure. He wanted them to know what had happened to their baby girl.

Harry was shocked at what he discovered when he actually found Ginevra Weasley.

Ginny woke up around noon the next day with a horrible hangover. Draco, Blaise and Ginny had talked into the early morning about what they were going to do. The most obvious option would be to run. Draco had wanted to go to another country entirely. Blaise wanted to turn himself into the Aurors. He didn't want to continue hiding when it was clear to him that the war was over. He was positive that once they told their story to the Aurors they would be allowed to go free. All Ginny knew was that she didn't want her life to change. She was happy living in their run-down, dirty apartment with her two boys. With either of Draco and Blaise's plans her life would be uprooted and her happiness would be hurt.

The only thing they agreed on was that they needed to talk to Ginny's manager the day after their break. After coming to that conclusion, all three of them proceeded to drink themselves into a stupor before stumbling into bed.

Ginny groaned and shifted in the bed. Draco reflexively wrapped his arms around her and pulled her closer to him. Blaise grumbled and rolled closer until Ginny was sandwiched between the boys. She smiled happily and her headache lessened. Her boys had the ability to take away all of her pain.

As she drifted off to sleep Ginny knew that no matter where they ended up, as long as they were together everything would be okay.

"I knew who the three of you were before I hired you, Ginny," Ginny's manager sighed and rubbed his hands together self-consciously.

Ginny, Blaise and Draco were currently crowded around Ginny's manager's desk. They had spent the previous day debating on what they were going to say to the man to keep him from spilling their secret to the Aurors. Once they arrived at the grocery store, the manager took the matter out of their hands entirely. As soon as he saw them, Ginny's manager opened his mouth and said, "I know".

Draco was scowling evilly and Blaise looked neutral. Ginny couldn't decide whether it would be better to cry or to laugh. It had taken six years for her to finally realize one very important fact. She knew her manager from her years at Hogwarts.

Lee Jordan, the twins best friend, stood in front of them with a sheepish smile on his face.

"It was only a lucky chance that led you to my doorstep. Fred and George asked me to look after you once they found out that I knew where you three were hiding. I've been keeping the twins updated on your lives and they have been setting up false clues for the Death Eaters who were searching for you. I must admit that it surprised them that you were saving Malfoy and Zabini but they still kept your secret."

"So why are the Aurors out looking for us now?" Blaise asked quietly.

"The war ended almost six months ago," Lee answered slowly. "It has taken the Aurors this long to capture all of the Death Eaters. Harry rose high in the ranks of the Aurors during the war, especially after he killed Voldemort. The second he got a chance; Harry started searching for the answers to your murders. The investigation led him here. Ginny, you really don't have a choice. It is only a matter of time until Harry finds you and your boys. Even if you run he will find you. I know that Fred and George will support you if you go to the Aurors and so will I."

Draco sighed and ran a hand nervously through his hair. "It's the only way," he said sadly. Ginny wrapped her arms around his waist and buried her face in Draco's shoulder.

Blaise clapped his hand down on Draco's shoulder. "Very well Jordan. Send a message to Ginny's brothers. Inform them that we are going to turn ourselves in, but I don't want Ginny hurt. None of this was her fault."

Lee nodded. "I'll do my best. Malfoy, you and Zabini should go to your jobs and ask for an extended leave. Let me have a quick word with Ginny. She will meet you at Draco's store." Blaise and Draco nodded before gently detangling themselves from Ginny and walking out of the office.

"Ginny I just want to warn you," Lee said as soon as the boys were gone. "It is very possible that you will end up in Azkaban until your sentence is cleared." Ginny nodded sadly. "Look, it would be best for Malfoy and Zabini if you didn't show them your feelings about prison and possible separation from them. If you show your pain to the boys they will suffer more. Be strong for them and for yourself." Ginny nodded again and walked out of the office.

She took her time leaving the grocery store and walked slowly through the town. Ginny ignored the glances from the other townspeople. At first, when they had just moved in, the townspeople had been wary of the three teens. They lived in the worst part of town and were barely able to get by. Now, six years later, all three of them were well known as strong, hardworking and friendly. For the townspeople, seeing Ginny so upset was a rare occasion.

For two different pairs of eyes it was a chance. Both sets of eyes blinked in surprise when they saw Ginny walking by herself down the busy street. One left to tell his superior about his find; the other snickered and turned to his friends. Together they slid out of the dark alley into the street. They began to follow Ginny down the street until the best opportunity to strike presented itself.

Ginny, lost in her misery as she was, was oblivious to the two sets of eyes. She continued walking down the street and almost paused in front of the pizza parlor but continued down the street towards Draco's shop instead. She only stopped walking when a hard hand landed on her shoulder and started pulling her into an alley.

Blaise saw Ginny walk by the restaurant on her way to Draco's and quickly finished up his business before following her down the street. He was still a few blocks away when he saw it happen. Blaise quickly broke into a run. He needed to get to Ginny quickly.

Draco had finished his business at the shop very swiftly. It was easier for him to take a few weeks off in his own shop than it was for Blaise to get leave for that long. Draco waited for both Ginny and Blaise for five minutes before leaving the shop to meet up with them in the street. He caught sight of Ginny's red hair and saw whom she was with within seconds. He also saw Blaise rushing to save her. Draco broke into a sprint.

Harry Potter apparated into the town moments after his Auror informed him that Ginny had been spotted. He followed her trail and stopped short at the scene in front of him.

Ginny was being dragged, fighting and screaming, down the street by a group of ratty gang members. Harry quickly grabbed his wand and moved forward to help her. He stopped short when two flashes, one of blond hair and the other of dark skin, flew by him. Harry's mouth opened in shock. Blaise Zabini and Draco Malfoy were alive! He quickly sent a message for backup before moving closer to the scene. Harry watched as Malfoy's fist connected with the face of the boy who was dragging Ginny. Ginny quickly pulled away and wrapped herself around Malfoy's body. Zabini took down another two boys before the gang scattered. Harry watched as his worst enemy and his worst enemy's best friend consoled his sobbing ex-girlfriend with practiced ease. It was suddenly clear to Harry that Ginny did not hate these two boys. She could not have been kidnapped as Harry hoped. In fact, it seemed that Ginny had willingly left her family for those two. It didn't make sense.

There was a loud swish of robes and suddenly three more Aurors walked up next to Harry. Ron, Neville, and Hermione watched the scene in front of them in disbelief.

"Is that Ginny?" Ron asked quietly.

Harry nodded. "And Malfoy and Zabini."

Hermione shook her head. "This is going to take some explaining," she sighed. All four of them nodded before moving into position.

Ginny looked up from where she was sobbing in Draco's arms and gasped. Her face was tearstained and her eyes were puffy but that did not disguise the look of anguish that crossed her face when she saw Harry standing in front of her with his wand poised to strike. She tightened her arms around Draco and sighed.

"Hello Harry," she murmured. Ginny felt Draco stiffen under her arms and Blaise freeze in place.

"You are officially under arrest, under the order of the Ministry of Magic, the jurisdiction of the Department of Aurors, Head Auror Harry Potter," Harry said quietly, "for the murders of Draco Malfoy, Blaise Zabini and Ginevra Weasley."

Ginny looked up at Harry and nodded. She gripped Draco's left hand in her right and Blaise's right hand in her left and, under constant wand point, followed Harry Potter away from their home and back into the Wizarding world. All they could hope was that the Wizarding world would be nicer and less deadly to them this time around.


	8. Chapter 8

Die to Live

Chapter Eight

By Mell8

--

"Auror Potter, I am so glad that you have come. I don't know what to do with the three prisoners you brought in last night." The Azkaban prison guard was wringing his hands nervously as he stumbled ahead of Harry on their way to the prisoner cells.

"What do you mean?" Harry asked. "Have they done anything wrong?" Harry would have sworn that neither Ginny nor the two boys would do anything rash while in prison. It was plainly obvious that they were more interested in getting their names cleared and going on with their lives than causing trouble. Even Malfoy, a Death Eater with the mark tattooed onto his arm, was on his best behavior in order to stay out of Azkaban.

"Not anything wrong, Sir; just extremely odd. They're all, well, you'll see when we get to their cells." The guard took a deep breath and opened the heavily spelled, muggle steel door that led to the prisoners.

Harry followed behind the guard with some trepidation. The guard had seen everything there was to see from the prisoners. What could have happened that would shake up the guard so much?

_Draco, Blaise and Ginny followed the armed prison guard down into the depths of Azkaban prison. Ginny clutched at her boy's hands like the lifeline they were. She was deeply afraid of being locked in prison and being separated from her boy's for the first time in six years. _

_Ginny had not let go of the boys ever since they had been captured a few hours ago, much to the annoyance of Harry and the other Aurors who were watching over them. When the Aurors had attempted to separate them so they could put manacles on their wrists and lead the Death Eaters, Draco and Blaise, to the maximum-security area and Ginny to the general prisoners area, the three had held onto each other so tightly that even Hermione's spells could not separate them. _

_Ginny was very relieved that Draco and Blaise seemed to be as anxious about their upcoming separation as she was. She knew that their feelings mirrored hers. If one of them had let go when Hermione was trying to force them apart, something inside of them would have broken; something more deep-rooted than their all consuming love for each other. _

_Ginny smiled slightly to Draco and Blaise as they followed the guard down the dank stone hallway. She gently squeezed the boy's hands and sighed silently when her hands were squeezed back. Her message was- it would be all right. The boys sent constant love back to her. _

_Once the Aurors had seen just how difficult it would be for them to separate the three new prisoners because of how attached, emotionally and physically, Ginny, Draco and Blaise were, the Aurors had finally decided to put them in adjacent cells and keep them under constant watch. The idea was a compromise set to placate both the prisoners and the guards who were watching over them. This way Ginny, Draco and Blaise would not be separated but the guards could easily keep an eye on them. Plus, the guards and Aurors wouldn't have to spend extra time forcing the prisoners apart. _

_The first cell they stopped at was small square space. It had a tiny, barred window in the back and bars along the front. _

"_This is for the blond," the gruff guard pointed roughly at Draco. Ginny choked back a sob and put her strong foot forward. Lee had told her to be stalwart for the boys so that Draco and Blaise would not have to spend precious planning time worrying about her. Ginny heeded that advice. She just wished that Draco didn't have to be in his cell by himself. _

_She turned towards Draco and pulled Blaise along with her. The Aurors tensed. They expected a fight. Harry, Ron and Hermione had their wands out, prepared to stop Malfoy from trying anything. Instead of trying to run, Draco turned to face Ginny, wrapped her in his arms and held on for dear life. Draco enveloped Blaise into his hug as well. _

_Ron started forward, a stunning spell on his lips but Harry held out an arm. "Ron, leave them be." _

"_But, Malfoy's touching my sister!" Ron hissed. Ginny ignored what might have been an offensive comment. She knew Ron was under lot of stress and addressing the issue of her feelings for the two Slytherins would not be in her best interests at the moment. _

"_Trust me Ron, she wants Malfoy and Zabini to touch her," Harry said quietly. Hermione looked up at Harry shrewdly. She recognized his dejected tone. It seemed to her that Harry had been waiting for Ginny to come back to him. Hermione could tell that fortunately, Harry saw that Ginny had definitely moved on. _

_Ron scowled and grumbled. "Lets go Malfoy!" _

_Draco slowly let go of Ginny and Blaise before tamely walking into his cell. He stood just inside the door as the iron bars were locked and spelled. Ginny trapped her eyes with Draco's and, even though his face was completely impassive, she saw his fear lurking beneath the surface. It wasn't the same type of fear that had Draco cowering under wand point but it was still potent. Ginny knew that she needed to be strong for him. Draco never lost eye contact with Ginny until she was ushered down the hall and out of his sight. _

_The next cell was Ginny's. She smiled ironically. She was always placed in the middle of the two boys. It was nice to know that Draco and Blaise would always surround her. _

_The Aurors watched as she hugged Blaise before walking into her cell. She looked strong and determined. _

_Harry thought that Ginny was just trying to be reassuring to the Zabini boy they were taking to the cell around the corner but he couldn't be sure. She had changed so much since she had disappeared. _

The guard led Harry down to where Ginny, Malfoy and Zabini were being kept until their trial. Just before reaching Malfoy's cell the guard stopped and turned to look at Harry. "Please understand, Auror Potter, I didn't know about this until I looked up the building plans. It seems that there is one common wall between the three cells." Harry nodded although he didn't understand what that had to do with the three prisoners. "Well, Auror, Sir, it seems that the three prisoners you brought here last night found that one place."

Harry still didn't understand what the guard meant but he walked forward anyway. He looked in Malfoy's cell and blinked slowly. The sparse pallet on the floor was empty even though it was very early in the morning. Instead, Draco Malfoy was sleeping on the floor, curled up into a small ball in the back left corner. He was using the left cell wall for a pillow and the blanket that had been given to him was wrapped tightly around his body.

Harry walked over to where Ginny was being held and had to stop and stare at her. Like Malfoy, she was sleeping on the floor, curled up into a ball, but, she was in the back right corner and, if Harry's guess was correct, she was directly across from Malfoy. The only difference between what Malfoy looked like and Ginny was that although her body was leaning against the right cell wall, her head was leaning against the back wall.

Harry quickly jogged around the corner to Zabini's cell and couldn't help shaking his head in annoyance. Zabini was curled up in the back right corner as well but, because his cell was around the corner and not in line with the other two cells, his head was leaning against Ginny's cell. Harry was now positive that Zabini was across from Ginny.

He quickly turned to the guard. "Run and floo Auror Granger-Weasley. Have her come here immediately." The guard rushed off and Harry turned back to look at the phenomenon that was occurring right in front of his eyes.

III

"There are a number of things that make what we saw impossible." Ron snarled quietly. "There are silencing spells, imperturbable charms, and various other wards around the cells that prevent prisoners from talking to each other. They shouldn't have known where they were."

"But," Harry added quietly, "their bodies were exactly across from the other. There wasn't even a centimeter of difference in their body placements. How could they have known where the other person was?"

Hermione listened to Harry and Ron argue but focused on the layout of the prison on the parchment in front of her. It was true that the only place all three cells touched was right in that corner but there was absolutely no way that Ginny, Malfoy, and Zabini could have found it without outside help. Unless… Hermione looked up suddenly at Ron. "Ron, go to Hogwarts and ask McGonagall to borrow Magical Bonds- the guide to binding yourself to your lover. It's in the restricted section." Ron opened his mouth to protest but his wife gave him a hard look and he left.

"Do you think they bound themselves together with magic?" Harry asked quietly.

"No," Hermione answered with a small shake of her head. "They didn't use magic while they were in hiding. It's something deeper than magical bonds that I think connects them and that book mentions it."

"Deeper?" Harry looked at her quizzically. "What do you mean?"

"It's like the Priori Incantatem you experienced when you fought Voldemort after the tri-wizard tournament. Your wands were brothers because of the phoenix feather in their core. I believe that something similar occurred to Ginny, Malfoy, and Zabini."

"You mean they saw dead people?" Ron asked quietly. He returned to the table with the book in his hand and handed it to Hermione.

"No, Ron. It means that they have something deeper than an Unbreakable Vow binding them so tightly together like brotherhood, that even physical separation is painful."

"But when I found them, Ginny was by herself. The two boys were on opposite ends of the street. That was further away than the cells are."

Hermione sighed. "There is one way to find out. Separate them."

"I'll go talk to the Minister." Harry said quietly. "I think that if we bring Ginny to the Burrow under constant Auror watch and put Malfoy, and Zabini in cells on the opposite sides of Azkaban, we can see how deep this binding really is."

III

Ginny woke to the sound of the bars in her cell being opened. She was cramped from being curled up so tightly in the corner for the entire night but she had been desperate.

Ginny had lain down on the pallet long after she had been locked up but no matter how hard she tried she couldn't sleep. There was something severely wrong about sleeping on the pallet by herself. She missed Draco's hard presence wrapped around the front of her body and Blaise's warm body melded to her back. She needed their big bed and their bodies against hers. Without that she felt empty.

Ginny needed to be closer to her boy's. She remembered that Draco was in the cell to her right so she crawled to the wall on the right. Ginny didn't know where the Aurors had put Blaise but she could tell that he was nearby. She thought he was in the cell along the back wall. Ginny desperately crawled to the back right corner of her cell and collapsed in relief. She could feel Draco leaning against the wall to her right and she felt Blaise was on her back. It wasn't nearly as good as being together in bed but it was better than being by herself.

Ginny looked up from where she was sitting in the corner and saw Harry, Ron and Hermione walk into her cell.

"Come on Ginny," Ron said with a smile. Ginny stood up stiffly and felt Draco and Blaise wake on their sides of the prison wall.

Ginny slowly walked over to where Ron was beckoning her out of the cell. "Where are we going?"

"We're taking you to the Burrow," Ron said happily. "Don't you want to go home?"

Ginny smiled at the thought of seeing her family again but the smile slowly faded. "What about Draco and Blaise?"

"They are going to stay here until their trial but you have been cleared of all murder charges because the people you were supposed to have murdered are clearly alive." Harry smiled at her, clearly expecting Ginny to be happy. He completely missed Ginny's look of complete terror. "You are expected to give your statement to the Wizengamot-"

"No!" Ginny gasped loudly. "Leave me here! I don't want to leave them behind!"

"Ginny," Ron said as he roughly grabbed on of Ginny's arms, "you are coming home whether you like it or not!"

"No!" Ginny screamed and started trying to fight Ron off. Ron pulled her out of the cell but was forced to stop when Ginny grabbed the bars to her cell and held on as tightly as she could. "Leave me alone!"

"Ginny!" Twin screams of horror rang from opposite sides of the hallway. Draco and Blaise were pressed as close to their bars as they could get and were screaming at Harry and his friends to leave Ginny alone.

Ron finally gave up trying to drag his sister away and pulled out his wand. "Stupefy! Mobilicorpus!" Ginny's stunned body floated out of the cell ahead of Ron and his wand.

As they passed Malfoy's cell Harry almost told them to stop the experiment. The look on Malfoy's face could have stopped Voldemort in his tracks. The look of absolute desolation on the blonds' face was the most helpless expression Harry had ever seen.


	9. Chapter 9

Die to Live

Chapter Nine

By Mell8

--

Ginny woke up and almost screamed. She was lying in her familiar bed, in her familiar bedroom and it was the last place she wanted to be. She desperately needed to get back to Azkaban. Her head ached and her stomach was cramped and she was miserable.

The door to her room opened quietly but Ginny ignored it. Her head hurt too much for her to bother with moving it to see who was bothering her.

"Oh! Ginny dear, you're awake!" Ginny would have groaned if she didn't hurt so much. "When Ron brought you in unconscious I didn't know what to think but you are here now and I am never letting you out of my sight again." Her mother began bustling around the room, dusting minute specks of dirt off the shelf while she waited for Ginny to acknowledge her.

Ginny whimpered.

"Oh! Ginny dear. I know that you must be overwhelmed to be home; especially after six years of living with those horrid Death Eaters!"

That got Ginny's attention. "Mum," she forced out through her pain. "Draco and Blaise are not Death Eaters."

The older woman clicked her tongue impatiently. "That's what Harry said you would say dear. Now that you're home you can forget all about what those awful boys forced you to say and do. You are safe now!"

Ginny growled in a very Draco-like manner. "Mum," she snarled. "Go talk to the twins and see what they say! I was the one who decided to save Draco and Blaise! I was the one who decided to run away from you and the Wizarding World. It was entirely my idea."

"But Ginny, if you were safe why didn't you at least owl us. I know that the Death Eaters kidnapped you and have not let you even speak with you family. It must have been horrible." She bent down to hug her daughter but stopped when Ginny let out a gasp of pain. "Oh, Ginny, what's wrong? Are you sick?"

Ginny snarled at her mother and forced herself into a sitting position even though it made her head spin and her stomach roll uncomfortably. "Look Mum. Go talk to the twins. Fred and George have known where I have been hiding the entire time. They helped us to escape from the Death Eaters and from the Order. You are just being blind."

Mrs. Weasley ignored her daughter and gently placed her hand on Ginny's forehead. "Oh my! Ginny you have a terrible fever." She bustled out of the room and returned moments later bearing an armful of potion bottles. "Here, Ginny. Take these. You'll feel better once you wake up again." Ginny scowled at her mother but carefully lifted up her aching arm and took the potions. Ginny fell into a pain hazed sleep and dreamed horrific dreams of Draco and Blaise screaming in pain.

III

"The reactions are all similar; high fever and extreme amounts of pain. I don't think any of them have moved once since the separation," Hermione shook her head. "This is serious." She absentmindedly flipped through the book she had sent Ron to get as she contemplated what circumstances must have occurred for Ginny, Malfoy and Zabini to have bonded so deeply.

Mrs. Weasley walked into the room carrying empty potion bottles. "Ginny woke up!" She chirped happily. "She has a bit of a fever and seems to be a little achy but it must be from spending a night in that horrible prison. She was delirious too!"

"What did she say Mrs. Weasley?" Harry asked.

"Some rubbish about planning the entire kidnapping and death scene herself and more rubbish about the twins knowing where she has been the entire time. Complete trash!" The Weasley matron answered scornfully as she disposed of the bottles. "Who wants a spot of tea?"

Harry looked at Ron and motioned towards the door with his eyes. Ron nodded. "Sorry Mum," he said quietly. "I have some last minute investigation to do."

"About what?" Mrs. Weasley asked. "I thought the investigation was closed. Ginny was kidnapped by those horrible Death Eaters and-" BAM

Hermione dropped the heavy tome on the kitchen table and gasped. "Harry! We're going to kill them!"

"What?" Harry gasped as he and Ron rushed to read over her shoulder.

A couple bound tightly should be able to sense where the other partner is even with extreme amounts of spells disrupting all forms of contact. This bond goes deeper than any spell can penetrate. If this characteristic of the spell occurs, the bonded couple are truly soul mates and their love will overcome all obstacles. This form of the spell is rare due to the fact that true soul mates are extremely difficult to find. If this does occur be warned. The forced separation between tightly bonded couples causes extreme pain and eventually death. After two days of forced separation both sides of the couple begin to whither and die. The closer the couple, the sooner death will occur.

"Why are you reading about soul mate binding?" Mrs. Weasley asked from over Harry's shoulder. She had read the article and couldn't understand why Harry, Hermione and Ron were whiter than her freshly washed sheets.

"Ron!" Hermione gasped. "Go to the twins. See if they really have enough evidence to acquit Draco Malfoy and Blaise Zabini. Harry, go to the Minister and request that they be moved to St. Mungo's at once. Mrs. Weasley, please don't let Ginny move until they get back. We'll be taking her to the hospital."

"What's wrong with my baby girl?" Mrs. Weasley asked tearfully. "What does she have to do with those terrible boys?"

Hermione looked pointedly at Harry and Ron who quickly apparated away. Then she turned to the crying woman. "Mrs. Weasley, you have your facts wrong. What Ginny told you was true. She did help Malfoy and Zabini escape. She saved their lives. Nobody kidnapped anyone. In fact, from what I have seen since we captured Ginny, she loves those boys."

"Loves? She can't love Death Eaters!" Mrs. Weasley sobbed.

"We don't have all the facts yet, Mrs. Weasley, but Malfoy is the only one with a Dark Mark and he disappeared just after Snape killed Dumbledore. As far as our sources can tell, Draco Malfoy and Blaise Zabini have never practiced the dark arts other than the one time when Dumbledore was killed."

"Why was Ginny with them?" Mrs. Weasley asked. Her tears were drying up now that she had something else to focus on besides her daughter being moved to St. Mungo's. "Why were you looking at love binding spells?"

"We don't know much about the first part," Hermione answered. "That's why Ron is going to visit the twins. If Fred and George have been keeping an eye on Ginny they must know why Ginny took up with Malfoy and Zabini. I was looking at love binding spells because I believe that Ginny, Malfoy and Zabini are soul mates who somehow managed to bind themselves together without magic."

"So separating Ginny from those two boys is what is causing her illness?"

"Yes. In fact, Malfoy and Zabini are experiencing the same symptoms. Harry went to the Minister to ask to have them placed in the secure ward in St. Mungo's where we can bring Ginny. Hopefully bringing them back together will erase all the harm done to them by separating them."

Ron stomped into the kitchen followed closely by Fred, George and Lee Jordan. "I've got our evidence right here. Can we please save Ginny now?" Ron snarled. Hermione nodded at her husband and Ron rushed upstairs to carefully bring Ginny downstairs.

III

When Ginny woke up again the pain was ten times worse. She slowly opened her eyes and even that movement hurt. The light pierced her eyes so she quickly closed them.

"Ginny blinked!" Ginny couldn't tell who yelled but even hearing someone else's voice hurt.

"Ginny dear, how are you feeling?" Someone gently touched her shoulder and Ginny screamed. Just being touched hurt more than anything else she had ever experienced in her life. She stopped screaming because drawing enough breath to scream hurt. Ginny settled for whimpering quietly.

"Quick, do something to put her back to sleep!" Ginny quickly faded from awareness.

III

"Why isn't it working?" Hermione moaned. "We put them in the same room together and everything. They aren't being forced to separate any longer." Hermione surveyed the large room at St. Mungo's with a worried frown on her face. Ginny was carefully laid out on the bed closest to the door and there was a privacy curtain in place around the bed. The two other beds were across the room to give Ginny some seclusion and those beds also had curtains around them. The healers were hovering in the room. There was nothing the healers could do to save the three people dying. It was frustrating to Hermione knowing that all she had to do was bring them together and the binding spell would reassert itself and save Ginny's life but Hermione didn't know how to bring them together other than put Ginny in the same room as Malfoy and Zabini. There was something important that was missing and she couldn't figure out what.

By the end of the day Hermione had read the entire book twice and she still couldn't figure out why Ginny was still dying. Ginny was now moaning in pain in her sleep and the two boys echoed her. All three of them looked frail, almost brittle, and they were gaunt. Ginny's cheeks were sunken and her body looked starved. It was horrible. Plus Malfoy and Zabini looked just as bad.

There was a timid knock on the door and Hermione looked up cautiously. Mrs. Weasley had been led into another room where she could be sedated and neither Ron nor Harry ever bothered to knock.

"Come in," Hermione called softly. The door opened slowly and Fred, George and Lee poked their heads inside.

"Can we come in?" Lee asked quietly. Hermione nodded and all three of them entered. "This is horrible!" Lee gasped as soon as he saw what had become of Ginny and her boys. "Isn't there anything we can do?"

"I don't know!" Hermione sniffed. "I can't think of anything and all this book mentions is returning them to the place where they bonded but that could be anywhere!" Hermione buried her face in her hands and completely missed the look that passed from the twins to Lee.

"Umm, Hermione, I think I know where they bonded," Lee said tentatively. "Would it help if we took them there?"

Hermione jumped up from her chair and let the heavy book fall to the floor. "One of you needs to run and get Harry and Ron. Lee, how many people can you take using side-along apparation?" She didn't wait for his answer. Instead she started taking down the curtains around the beds and carefully turning down the covers.

Harry and Ron ran in and immediately started helping Hermione. Fred had briefed them on the way downstairs from the tearoom. Once everyone was gathered Lee apparated into Draco, Ginny, and Blaise's small apartment.

"Here," Lee said as he led the way to the bedroom. "Put them here." Fred and George carefully walked into the room carrying Zabini. They carefully put him on the bed in the closest position to the wall. They put Ginny in the bed next and Draco was placed on the edge closest to the door.

Hermione, Ron, Harry, Fred, George, and Lee all settled back into the small space to see if this idea would save Draco, Ginny, and Blaise or if the three of them were really going to die.

Only time would tell.


	10. Chapter 10

Die to Live

Chapter Ten

By Mell8

--

_Harry had not spared Malfoy much thought. His animosity was all for Snape, but he had not forgotten the fear in Malfoy's voice on that tower top, nor the fact that he had lowered his wand before the other Death Eaters arrived. Harry did not believe that Malfoy would have killed Dumbledore. He despised Malfoy still for his infatuation with the Dark Arts, but now the tiniest drop of pity mingled with his dislike. Where, Harry wondered, was Malfoy now, and what was Voldemort making him do under threat of killing him and his parents?_

Harry shook off his memories from Dumbledore's funeral and turned to stare at the three invalids dying on their huge bed in their tiny bedroom. They had been laid out like corpses waiting to be prepared for their viewing in the coffin. Harry thought they looked like corpses too. It was hideous to be thinking of Ginny as a dead body but Harry could not think of another way to describe the decrepit creatures in front of him.

He quickly turned to leave the room. The minister would expect formal explanation about why Harry had authorized the movement of two known Death Eaters and one suspected murderess. Harry needed to go and practice his speech.

III

Ginny could feel her life slipping away. Her mind was not functioning correctly and her body was in so much pain that it was almost better to not have to worry about thinking. Yet, even through all of that she could still feel her boys next to her. She knew they were there and that both were trying to send her strength so she could live even if they died.

Ginny took everything her boys could give her and slowly, painfully, levered herself up. She opened her eyes and saw Blaise against the wall and Draco on the edge of the bed. As her gaze began to blacken and the forms of her boys began to blur, Ginny reached out and gripped their cold hands.

She sent back all of the strength they had given her and smiled when she felt their answering love.

III

_Harry did not walk away from the battle with Voldemort unscathed but he did walk away the victor. It took him nearly two months to recuperate in St. Mungo's. Hermione had almost died in the battle and Ron nearly lost sight in one eye and the use of the left side of his body, but they healed and were welcomed into the Auror office with open arms and high-ranking positions. _

_Harry decided that the first item of business was searching for, and capturing, all of the Death Eaters and throwing them into Azkaban or executing them for their crimes. Lucius Malfoy, Crabb, and Goyle took nearly two months to track down. _

_Once Harry felt that the Auror department had spent enough time capturing Death Eaters, he set them up with a personal, but vital task; find out what had happened to Ginny Weasley. _

_At first the office had turned up very little. All the evidence led to foul play but no one could be sure if the evidence was a set up or if Ginny had really killed both Death Eater boys. _

_The Aurors did not find anything until they interrogated the floo department. _

_All of the records of floo traveling for that day were missing. Further searching found that the old head of the department had retired to a vacation home on the coast thirty thousand galleons richer than he should have been. _

_Soon all of the evidence pointed towards a set up. The only thing Harry could not be sure about was whether Ginny had been kidnapped or had willingly gone along. _

_Now they had the town where he was pretty sure Ginny had gone to. All they had to do was stake it out and wait. _

III

Ginny came to slowly. She could feel Draco and Blaise wake beside her but knew that they lacked strength to even open their eyes. The pain her body was in made it difficult to breathe and coherent thought was a far off dream, but at least she could sense her boy's again. That was more relief and healing than Ginny could ever hope for.

She wished that her last breath of life on earth was one filled with memories of her boys.

III

Narcissa Malfoy stalked into St. Mungo's with a huge scowl on her face. Her son had been found and she had not been told. A house elf had to bring her the morning paper with the headline – High Ranking Death Eaters and Their Killer Found Alive; Draco Malfoy, Blaise Zabini, and Ginevera Weasley are in Azkaban waiting for their sentencing by the Wizengamot – before she even had an inkling that her precious son was not dead.

She immediately went to Azkaban and was turned away at the door. Apparently her son had been moved to St. Mungo's because of a spell that had gone wrong. Yet another important piece of information she had not been told. It was infuriating and, once she had spoken with her son, Narcissa was planning on lodging a formal complaint with the Auror office.

Narcissa skipped waiting in line at the receptionist desk and went straight up to the old witch who was busy pointing the man with dish pans for hands towards the waiting area.

"Where is my son," she snarled at the witch. "Where is Draco Malfoy being kept?"

The witch looked up at Mrs. Malfoy and blanched. "I'm afraid that what you ask is confidential. You will need to speak with the Aurors in charge of the case for more information."

Narcissa snarled at the dumpy woman and spun away from the desk.

"I give thousands of galleons to the Auror office to aid their investigation for my son and they tell me nothing!" She stomped away and began walking towards a private waiting room with a fireplace with floo access. Once she got her hands on that Potter boy she would wring the answers out of his dead body.

"Where is my daughter?"

Narcissa stopped walking outside the waiting room that the anguished voice rang inside of.

"What have you done with my baby?"

"Mum don't worry. We took her and those two boys somewhere they could heal. Honest, Mum, Ginny is safe."

Mrs. Malfoy snarled and slammed open the door that led to the voices. Her eyes saw two red heads, Mrs. Weasley and one of her many sons. She focused on Ronald; the one she knew was second in command of the case, and stalked over to him.

"Where is my son!" Narcissa hissed. Her eyes narrowed at the boy's closemouthed expression. "Bring me to Draco at once!"

"I can't!" the boy gasped. "Bringing anyone else there could upset the healing. Hermione is there. If something happens she will notify us immediately."

Narcissa sank into the chair next to the Weasley matriarch. The woman patted her gently on the shoulder but her focus was still on her son.

"When I get through with the Auror office you will all wish you where Muggles," Molly Weasley hissed at her blanching son.

III

Ginny could feel strength returning to her numb limbs. It was almost odd being able to feel her fingers and toes again. The weight was pleasant. She could also feel her heart beat in a steady rhythm that had been absent for the past few days.

She slowly took a deep breath and turned onto her side before drifting off into sleep.

Beside her, two boys began to turn onto their sides as well and when they shifted their bodies closer in sleep, Ginny's body was more than willing to welcome their weight alongside hers.

III

Hermione poked her head inside the bedroom and gasped. She could see three heads, one blond, one red, and one black, but the rest of their bodies were so intertwined that she could not distinguish girl from boy.

Was this normal for them? Had the three somehow managed to create a soul bond so deep that even in their sleep they sought comfort from the others? Hermione shook her head and sighed before turning and running to get Pig from his cage.

III

Ron looked up from where he was crouching in a corner, the only safe place from the two women in the room, when Pig hooted and flew into the room. Molly Weasley tensed and turned her glare on her son.

Ron grabbed the note, read it, gasped, and apparated away. Molly stood up and picked up the note. It read one thing, 'come!'.

Narcissa reached up and pulled the small fluffy owl out of the air. She wanted to send a quick note to Lady Zabini. When the Weasley boy returned the three mothers would make sure that he would not leave again unless he was taking the women to their children.

III

Ron closed the bedroom door behind him and sighed. "Well, I guess I had better get to work then." Hermione looked at him and waited for an explanation. "I need to gather enough information to make sure that Ginny does not end up back in prison."

"What about the boys?" Hermione asked quietly.

"I don't care about them!" Ron hissed. "It would be better if they rotted in Azkaban. In fact, I'm going to make sure that they spend the rest of their sorry lives behind bars."


	11. Chapter 11

Die to Live

Chapter Eleven

By Mell8

--

"The Dark Mark tattooed on his arm is evidence enough of Malfoy's allegiance with Voldemort and the Death Eaters. It clearly shows that he supports their dark cause. It would not be safe or wise to let this Death Eater go free." The old wizard finished his speech and took his seat along the wall of the Wizengamot. He was an old Auror who had retired from duty after the battle had been won against Voldemort. The man spent his time ensuring that all Death Eaters were sent to Azkaban and he was relentless against both Draco Malfoy and Blaise Zabini.

The members of the court nodded their heads. Most considered it to be a foregone conclusion that both boys, who were chained to the chairs in the center of the room, would be in Azkaban by the end of the night.

"Yes, he has the Dark Mark on his arm but it was unwillingly placed there." Another man stood up from his seat against the wall and stood in front of the Wizengamot. "Lucius Malfoy, known Death Eater and manipulator, had a fondness for forcing people to do what he wanted. Draco Malfoy was forced to enter the ranks of the Death Eaters because his father tied the boy up, dragged him, kicking and screaming, to where Voldemort waited, and held out the boy's arm while the mark was placed." The wizard pulled out a huge sheaf of parchment from his briefcase. "I hold in my hand six confessions of Death Eaters in Azkaban whom, while under the influence of veritaserum, testified that the situation I have just described is completely true. Draco Malfoy never wanted to become a Death Eater and as such, should not be sent to Azkaban." The wizard sat down again satisfied that he had safely shocked the court by proving his client's unwilling excursion into the ranks of the Death Eaters. Narcissa Malfoy would be proud that she had hired him.

"But we must not forget Dumbledore's murder!" The Aurors' wizard stood with a flourish. "We have heard, in a testimony from Harry Potter himself, about Draco Malfoy's various attempts on the late, great Headmaster Dumbledore and about the fateful night when Draco Malfoy cornered Dumbledore on a high tower top and allowed the Death Eater Severus Snape to kill the Headmaster. Is that not proof of Malfoy's involvement with the Death Eaters?" The man returned to his seat with a satisfied smirk on his face.

"That is true, but unfortunately you have neglected to mention a very important piece of Mr. Potter's testimony." He pulled out another piece of paper and held it in front of his square nose. "I quote from Mr. Potter's testimony in the words of Albus Dumbledore and Draco Malfoy, '"My dear boy, let us have no more pretense about that. If you were going to kill me, you would have done it when you first disarmed me, you would not have stopped for this pleasant chat about ways and means."

"I haven't got any options!" said Malfoy, and he was suddenly white as Dumbledore. "I've got to do it! He'll kill me! He'll kill my whole family!"

"I appreciate the difficulty of your position," said Dumbledore. "Why else do you think I have not confronted you before now? Because I knew that you would have been murdered if Lord Voldemort realized that I suspected you." Malfoy winced at the sound of the name. "I did not dare speak to you of the mission with which I knew you had been entrusted, in case he used Legilimency against you," continued Dumbledore. "But now at last we can speak plainly to each other…. No harm has been done; you have hurt nobody, though you are very lucky that your unintentional victims survived…. I can help you, Draco."

"No, you can't," said Malfoy, his wand hand shaking very badly indeed. "Nobody can. He told me to do it or he'll kill me, I've got no choice."

"He cannot kill you if you are already dead."' "

The man put the parchment aside and pulled out another one. "I have a confession signed by Draco Malfoy while under the powers of veritaserum that agree with the passage I have read from Mr. Potter's testimony. Additionally Albus Dumbledore's last line ' he cannot kill you if you are already dead' brings me to my next point. Not very long after Dumbledore's death Draco Malfoy did appear to have died at the hands of one of the members of the Order of the Phoenix. Ginevera Weasley carried out Dumbledore's last order. She took Draco Malfoy away from his tormentors, the Death Eaters, and brought him somewhere where the boy would not be forced into any more Death Eater activities."

The wizard pulled out even more paper and passed this bundle to the Head of the Wizengamot and quickly hid his delight when he saw the Auror in charge of putting the Death Eaters behind bars shift uncomfortably in his seat. "This is a series of statements proving Ginevra Weasley's motive to be freeing Mr. Malfoy from the evil clutches of Voldemort. Draco Malfoy, Blaise Zabini, Ginevera Weasley, Fred Weasley, George Weasley, and Lee Jordan made these statements. Also, I have statements by two house elves, one Dobby and Winky, who both work in the kitchen at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, proving the strong comradeship of Mr. Malfoy and Mr. Zabini with Miss Weasley. Plus I give you accounts from many towns people who remember when the three teens first moved into their town and how destitute and anxious all three were."

"Is there any more information to be brought in front of the Wizengamot proving the guilt or innocence of one Draco Malfoy?" The head of the court stood from his seat and looked around the room and then at the blond chained to his seat on the main floor. When no one answered him the man nodded. "Very well. The Wizengamot will deliberate this matter. Court is adjourned until the decision has been made.

III

"Mr. Blaise Zabini is closely associated with the Death Eaters. He openly supports Draco Malfoy and his family has always been allied with the Dark Arts." The old Auror stood and slowly made his opening statements against Blaise Zabini. He knew that his argument against the boy was weak. The only strikes on Zabini's record were two detentions while in Hogwarts due to not handing in his homework. There was nothing to truly prove the boy's guilt. All the Auror could do was make generalizations that could not be based on hard fact with the hopes that the Wizengamot would take his side.

The wizard hired by Lady Malfoy stood up and threw a smirk over towards the old Auror. It was clear that he had already won this case.

III

"Bring in Ginevera Weasley!" the Head of the Wizengamot called. The doors in the back of the room opened with a loud groan and Ginny was brought in surrounded by two Aurors. A chair appeared between the chained Draco and Blaise and Ginny sank into it slowly. She was nervous, to say the least, and was horribly worried that something she said or did would send her boy's back to prison.

"The evidence for this case has already been presented," the Head of the Wizengamot began. "Miss Weasley, do you have any words that need to be brought to the attention of the Wizengamot?"

Ginny nodded and stood up. "All I have to say is that I love these boys." She wiped away a tear and placed one hand on Draco's shoulder and another on Blaise's. "I would give my life for them and I know that they would equally give their lives for me and for each other with out second thoughts. Everything I did, the planning and action of our deaths and subsequent hiding in the Muggle world, I did it to save their lives and I would do it again in a heartbeat. I gave up my family and friends, my life and my dreams of becoming someone important in this world, to save them. Anyone who knew me knows that I would never throw in my lot so strongly unless I wholeheartedly believed in the cause. I believe in these boys, and I ask that the sentence given to them be given to me because it would be less painful for me to be in Azkaban, knowing that they are only a few cells away from me, than it would be for me to be free while they are so far away." Ginny was crying openly now and the whole court watched as both Malfoy and Zabini struggled against their chains until they were free enough to move their heads. Both boys rubbed their cheeks against the hand on their shoulder. Ginny smiled through her tears at the boys before the Aurors flanked her again and led the redhead out of the room.

As the doors closed behind her the Wizengamot stood and left the room for more comfortable quarters where they could discuss and sentence all three teens.

In another room on the other side of the Ministry of Magic Ronald Weasley began to plan.


	12. Chapter 12

Die to Live

Chapter Twelve

By Mell8

--

Ginny slowly left her bedroom, shuffled down the hall, and clomped leisurely down the stairs into the kitchen. She sat down in front of the breakfast setting left out for her and moments later her mum was filling the plate with food.

Ginny sighed. Ever since she had been cleared of murder charges at the trial her mum had made it a mission to feed Ginny back all the weight she had lost while ill. That meant that she had two steaks in front of her, three eggs fried in grease, a large handful of bacon, and hash browns and she was expected to clean her plate. Ginny slowly ate an egg and had one piece of bacon and a forkful of potato before sneaking out of the kitchen and away from her mother.

She made it outside and collapsed on a bench in the garden before she ran out of energy. Ginny had been lethargic and tired ever since the trial and it was only getting worse as the days passed. At first she had been up for a lively game of Quidditch but now the thought of being on a broom put her to sleep.

She was just so tired.

Ginny had a good idea why she was exhausted. She had spoken with Hermione about why she and the boys had become so sick and Hermione had mentioned something about a soul bond before running off to find Ron so they could begin packing for their extended vacation. Ginny had luckily still had energy back then and had promptly gone to Flourish and Blott's to look up what a soul binding was. That was why she knew that Draco and Blaise's absence where what was causing her fatigue.

What she did not know was why they were absent. Ron had gone to their sentencing for Ginny, as she had not been allowed into the room.

When Ron returned he had smiled at her and said, "I'm sure they'll be around eventually."

"So are they free? Where they acquitted?" Ginny had asked excitedly.

Ron had smiled down at her but Ginny was too keyed up to notice that he was sending a poignant look over her head towards Harry and Hermione.

The days passed and grew into weeks and eventually, months. Every day Ginny wondered why she was alone. She woke up wondering why she felt so cold. Why weren't there two bodies keeping her warm. She wondered why they did not come back for her.

Ginny sat at the bench all morning and it was well into the afternoon when Molly Weasley went looking for her daughter.

She found the tiny red head on the bench in the garden and at first it looked like Ginny was sleeping but as Molly quietly crept closer she saw that Ginny's eyes were opened.

"Ginny?" Molly called softly. She waved a hand in front of her daughters face but Ginny's eyes did not see her. Instead the girl seemed to be looking outward towards something that Molly couldn't see.

Towards someone, someones, that Molly couldn't see.

Molly reached her hand out to gently shake her daughters shoulder but stopped when Ginny slowly turned her head to focus on the older woman.

"Blaise? Draco?" Ginny whispered in such a broken voice that Molly's heart clenched in pain. She watched, horrified, as a wet tear slowly made it's way down Ginny's smooth cheek. With a mother's tender care, Molly gathered her baby in her arms and gently began to rock her.

"Where are they Mum?" Ginny gasped. "Why haven't they come for me?"

Molly closed her eyes and hid her face in her daughters' long hair.

"Where do you think they are Ginny?" she asked kindly. It was obvious that Ginny had not been informed and Molly thought she knew the reasoning behind that action. Maybe if she told Ginny slowly the girl could handle the news instead of breaking down like Ron thought.

Because nothing, _nothing_, could be worse than seeing Ginny like this.

Ginny slowly stood up from her mother's embrace. "Thanks Mum," Ginny said and smiled.

Molly Weasley watched as her baby girl slowly walked into the house and away from the gentle protection she offered.

Maybe Molly would tell her later; once Ginny had gotten a bit of her life back together Molly would tell her daughter the truth. Until then she would just have to watch over Ginny and make sure that she did not suffer too much.

When Molly Weasley walked back into the house Ginny was gone and the Floo was still burning brightly.

Ginny crouched down and wiggled out of the too small fireplace. She stood up and stepped into the tiny room. Dust had settled over everything since the last time she had been here. Ginny grimaced as she looked around and saw all the cleaning she would have to do to get their home back to the pristine condition they had left it in.

Her cloak was still lying across the back of the couch and Draco had left his toothbrush on the table again. She found Blaise's jeans in a pile in the hallway and his dirty apron from work was thrown over the back of the doorway.

In the closet Ginny found two wrapped packages. Her birthday presents for a happy day they had missed because Draco and Blaise were missing.

Her tears wet the paper as she slowly opened the presents. Draco had gotten her a necklace and Blaise had given her the matching earrings. With shaking hands she put the jewelry on and turned to look at herself in the mirror.

A sob escaped her throat. Blaise should be standing there admiring her earrings and joking with Draco that his gift looked better on her than Draco's necklace. Draco should be there, gently stroking her neck with one hand and yanking a handful of Blaise's dark hair with the other.

"Where are you?" Ginny screamed. "Why have you abandoned me?"

She stepped backwards until the backs of her knees met the edge of the bed and let her body collapse into a heap on the huge mattress.

III

_The court secretary stood with a paper in his hand and waited while the Wizengamot filed out of the room to go back to their respective lives. It was up to the secretary to read the verdict and to make sure that the orders contained on the paper were carried out. _

_The door closed behind the last member and a cold wind whipped through the courthouse ruffling the all-important paper. _

"_Mr. Draco Malfoy has been found guilty and has been sentenced to life in Azkaban," the secretary called out into the shocked room. Everyone thought the lawyer had done a much better job than that. Most of the witnesses in the room had been convinced of Malfoy's innocence. _

"_Mr. Blaise Zabini has been found guilty and has been sentenced to fifty years in Azkaban." _

_A loud outcry filled the room at that statement. It had been made perfectly clear that Blaise Zabini had wanted nothing to do with the Death Eaters. How had the Wizengamot gotten this wrong too? _

III

"Look Malfoy, Zabini, you know your sentence. Let Ginny go. If you pull her with you she'll get sick again and I can guess that you don't want that to happen." Ron sneered at the blond and black boys. "Let her go. You'll injure her and yourselves less this way."

Draco dropped his head and focused his glare on the shackles around his wrists and ankles. It would be better for Ginny if she didn't know that her boys were behind bars. She would not be as hurt if she remained ignorant and Ginny would not try to spend every waking moment in Azkaban with them. She deserved to spend the rest of her life living outside in the sun with her loving family.

No, Draco did not want to hurt her. He would let her go.

Draco looked up into Blaise's face and saw the same feelings echoed there. He quickly leaned over to Blaise and pressed his lips to the other boy's in a quick goodbye and a soft thank you for all their years of love and friendship.

Blaise would be released in time to give those same sentiments to Ginny. Draco would never see either of them again.

"Come on Malfoy," Ron growled and began leading the boy into the depths of the prison. Draco saw Blaise being led in the other direction.

III

He was locked in a dark, dank cell with a small barred window near the ceiling and a slot for food to be delivered in the door. At first he ate when food was pushed into the cell. Then moving from his damp bed over to the door became too much of an effort. He was content to sit and watch the sun pass across the sky from dawn to dusk and then watch the moon in her many faces as she followed the sun.

He was just happy that Ginny was able to let the sun warm her face during the day and the moon was able to guard her dreams at night.

He was just happy that Ginny was free.

"_Where are you? Why have you abandoned me?" _

Two heads simultaneously jerked up from their sad positions in their cells on opposite sides of the huge prison. She was crying. She was hurt. All thoughts of her happiness flew from their minds as they realized that their absence was hurting their angel more than keeping her happy.

Twin cracks that rang through the stone walls of the prison were the only warning the guards received that something was wrong. Draco Malfoy and Blaise Zabini were missing from their cells. Somehow, both of them had disappeared at the same exact time from cells that had so much warding on them that not even an ant could move undetected inside. One guard immediately ran to get an Auror for help.

III

"We're so sorry Ginny," Draco murmured in a tear choked voice as he and Blaise carefully climbed onto the bed with the sobbing girl. They gathered her in their arms and gently kissed her head and cheeks and lips and neck and wet tears.

Ginny sobbed louder but this time from happiness rather than despair. They were back. Back in her arms and in her bed. She clutched them to her and let them stroke her hair and curl themselves around her shaking body.

They would worry about consequences in the morning. For now it was more than enough to be back in each others arms.

III

Harry Potter looked up wearily at the panting prison guard.

"Auror Potter! Malfoy and Zabini have disappeared from their cells!"

Harry sighed and ran a tired hand through his hair. Why did Ron and Hermione have to go on a second honeymoon this month? Everything bad that could possibly happen was happening and he was alone in the office.

Ginny was missing and Mrs. Weasley was frantic. Now Malfoy and Zabini had disappeared as well. It was his job to find them again.

Harry had a pretty good idea of their whereabouts but it would still mean a lot of paperwork once he found them. Plus, all three would have to go back in front of the Wizengamot for a re-evaluation of their crimes. It was possible that Malfoy and Zabini would never see the light of day again and Ginny could end up behind bars for harboring dangerous criminals.

Harry sighed, thanked the guard, and apparated home. Ginny, Malfoy, and Zabini would still be in their home tomorrow. Harry might as well get a good nights rest before having to deal with the backlash.


	13. Chapter 13

Die to Live

Chapter Thirteen

By Mell8

--

Harry sighed and finished filling out the paperwork that would alert the Wizengamot that they had an important case pending. Hopefully the court could assemble today so the entire issue between Ginny, Blaise, and Draco could be resolved.

The missive flew out of the office in a paper airplane to the secretary down the hall who would copy the message and send it to the appropriate recipients.

Harry sighed and left to go to the Leaky Cauldron where he was meeting with Molly Weasley, Lady Malfoy and Lady Zabini. He needed to update them on what was going on because if he didn't, the three angry mothers would castrate him and then single-handedly destroy the ministry.

III

_Harry stepped through the front door of the tiny house Ginny, Draco, and Blaise shared and slowly made his way towards the bedroom. He soundlessly pushed open the door with the tip of his wand and peaked inside. Harry sighed inwardly, shook his head, and backed out of the room. He could wait another hour or so for them to wake up. _

_Harry settled himself in a chair at their small kitchen table and rested his face in his hands. _

_The memory of what he had just seen in the bedroom made him shiver in both horror and remorse. Horror, because Ginny had only been able to force the covers over both her and Blaise's bodies and Draco Malfoy had pushed his side of the blankets down around the foot of the bed. Malfoy had been blatantly naked and had been curled around Ginny and because of the lack of covers on the blonde's side of the bed, one of Ginny's breasts was showing; which meant that Ginny was naked as well. Harry did not even want to think about whether the Zabini boy had been clothed either, but the boy had been just as wrapped around Ginny as Malfoy. _

_Harry wasn't going to be the one to wake them up. He was patient enough to wait until they were dressed and ready before he forced them to go back to Azkaban. _

_An hour later Harry heard the shower turn on. The water ran through the pipes for fifteen minutes before turning off. A minute later the water turned back on as someone else got into the shower. Harry heard the bedroom door opened and carefully composed himself and prepared for whoever entered the kitchen. It was Ginny and she was wearing pajamas (something that had been absent only an hour and a half ago). She smiled and went over to the refrigerator. _

_Ginny opened the door and grimaced as the smell of rotten milk and spoiled food wafted out of the muggle appliance. Ginny shut the door with a snap and ran a hand through her hair in aggravation. It had been months since anyone had come to the house and the fridge had not been cleaned out when they had been captured. Now they did not have any food. How could Ginny make a good breakfast for her boys, a last meal, before Harry carted all three of them to Azkaban if they did not have any food? _

_With a hopeless expression on her face, Ginny turned to Harry for help. He smiled kindly at her and lifted his wand. _

_Seconds later a muggle carton of eggs, milk, bread, and other necessities had been spelled onto the kitchen table. _

"_Thanks," Ginny whispered as she gathered the items and went over to the counter to begin making omelets. _

_Harry stood up and walked over to the disgusting refrigerator. He opened the door, waved his wand, and smiled when everything was banished. With another quick cleaning spell Harry cleared the house of dust and grime. When he returned to his place at the table Harry saw that Ginny was silently crying. With a sob she put down the egg she was holding and turned towards Harry. _

"_Thank you so much," she said with a small smile for the Auror. _

_He was clearly there to take all three of them to Azkaban but for some reason Harry was waiting until they were ready to leave before taking them into custody. Ginny did not understand why Harry was being so nice but she appreciated it anyway. _

"_Shower's free love," Draco said as he entered the kitchen. He took the pan from Ginny as she left the room. _

"_Listen Potter, I do not want Ginny locked up in Azkaban. I will bring down everything the Malfoy family has on the Ministry to prevent that from happening." _

"_And the Zabini family," Blaise growled as he pulled four plates from the cupboard. _

"_Look," Harry said quietly. "I can't overturn the Wizengamot's decision." He ran a hand through his unkempt hair. "What I don't understand is their sentencing. Ginny got off without any punishment while both of you received maximum sentences. If anything, I would think only Malfoy would be penalized for his role in Dumbledore's death and because he has the Dark Mark on his arm. Zabini didn't do anything wrong except disappear. And with your lawyer…" Harry sighed. _

"_Have you been looking into it?" Draco asked as he scooped the omelets onto the plates. _

"_I've searched every avenue," Harry replied. "I can't find any evidence of bribery or any other types of corruption." _

"_That wind!" Draco said excitedly. Blaise looked up at Draco with a lifted eyebrow. "You remember the day we were sentenced, as the Wizengamot members were leaving a strong wind blew through the underground room." _

"_A spell?" Harry gasped. "I didn't think of that!" _

"_Didn't think of what?" Ginny asked. She walked into the room, fully dressed and ready to go. _

"_Nothing," Draco mumbled. "Don't worry about it." _

III

Draco, Ginny and Blaise were ushered into the courtroom surrounded by an entire contingent of Aurors. They were holding hands, Draco and Blaise on the sides, Ginny in the middle, so they were forced to turn awkwardly to get through the small doorway. Chains were ignored as they strode forward to stand in front of the now familiar Wizengamot.

"Why has this case been re-opened Auror Potter?" The Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot stood and addressed Harry.

"Draco Malfoy and Blaise Zabini escaped from Azkaban and need to be re-sentenced. Ginevra Weasley was caught harboring the fugitives," Harry answered expectantly.

Ginny looked at Harry, then Draco and Blaise. All three were looking up at the Warlock as if waiting for confirmation of something. Even though Ginny did not understand what profound statement they were waiting for, she added her eyes to the group stare.

"Secretary! Bring me the file on this case!" The Warlock ran a hand through his hair and groaned. The rest of the Wizengamot looked uncomfortable.

The secretary ran over and the Warlock pulled out one slip of parchment and began to read. "Ginevra Weasley has been acquitted of the murders of both Draco Malfoy and Blaise Zabini due to the fact that the victims were found alive and well. The Malfoy and Zabini lawyer dropped kidnapping charges so no further trial was necessary.

"Blaise Zabini was acquitted of all Death Eater charges. It was voted that one cannot be held accountable for their birth. In fact, it was noted that Blaise Zabini should receive our gratitude for going against the pressures forced on him by He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named and by his family.

"Draco Malfoy was found guilty of his aid in the late Albus Dumbledore's murder. For this crime he was to be sentenced to two years community service, receive a ten thousand galleon fine which would be put towards the health of war orphans, and have to check in with the Auror office once a week to make sure no Death Eater activities were being carried out by the guilty.

"I believe there was no mention of Azkaban in that sentencing."

The court secretary stood up. He was shaking his head and was holding a piece of parchment from his personal files. "Sir, I have something completely different written on the sheet you gave me to read; a lifetime sentence in Azkaban for Draco Malfoy, a fifty-year sentence in Azkaban for Blaise Zabini, and an acquittal for Ginevra Weasley."

"That's preposterous!" the Chief Warlock hissed. "What I have in my hands is the truth. I do not know where you received that piece of filth."

Harry raised his hand to get the Wizengamot's' attention. "May I take the secretary's piece of parchment up to the Auror offices. I would like to check it for spells to see if anything will lead us to the person or persons who changed the sentence."

The Chief Warlock nodded. "I want this solved immediately. I also want the Ministry to give a public apology to Draco Malfoy, Ginevra Weasley, and Blaise Zabini. Mr. Malfoy's sentence will be reduced to twelve months and he and Mr. Zabini will receive complete reparations for their time spent in Azkaban." The other members of the Wizengamot were nodding in agreement.

With a flash of light the chains dropped from around Draco, Ginny and Blaise. Ginny screamed in happiness and wrapped her arms around her boy's shoulders. All three were crying and Blaise and Draco were plastering kisses all over Ginny and each other.

Suddenly the Weasley, Malfoy and Zabini matriarchs were there, hugging their children and crying just as much as their offspring.

All three were safe, safe and free.

"I expect children soon," Molly Weasley admonished with a meaningfull glare at her daughter.

"But first we must marry them!" Narcissa crowed happily.

Mrs. Zabini turned to look at the Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot with a fierce scowl. "I expect a ceremony to be created that will bind our babies together; all three of them."

The Warlock nodded and hurriedly removed himself from the room before another angry mother could start on him.

III

Miles away Ronald Weasley looked down at the wedding invitation in his hands and knew that he had lost.

"Who's wedding is it?" Hermione asked quietly.

"Ginny's getting married to Malfoy and Zabini," Ron answered with a snarl.

"That's wonderful!" Hermione clapped her hands together excitedly. "With their soul binding already so strong, it's bound to be a beautiful service.

"Yeah, beautiful," Ron sighed.

A.N. That's it! That's the end! Of course there will be an epilogue but only if a lot of people review. I'm sure everyone wants to know what's going to happen with Ron and with the wedding.

Please tell me what you all thought of my story. This was my first big undertaking and I hope everyone loved it.

Oh, and thanks to ReignOfSlytherin for everything. Your story made me want to complete this one and motivated me to write my best. Everyone should go check out her story, Deliver Me From Evil.


	14. Chapter 14

Die to Live

Epilogue

By Mell8

--

"Ronald Weasley, for your duplicitous actions against Ginevra Weasley, Draco Malfoy, and Blaise Zabini you have been sentenced to experience what Draco Malfoy and Blaise Zabini endured. As both served a sentence in Azkaban of three months, nine days, and twenty-one hours, you will serve a sentence in Azkaban of six months, eighteen days, and forty-two hours.

"In addition you have been removed from your position as an Auror for this Ministry and have been barred from holding any future position in this Ministry." The Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot stared down at an abashed Ronald Weasley. "Auror Potter has informed me that you will be in his custody through Ginevra's wedding, after which you will be turned over to the Azkaban guards."

The warlock stood from his seat and turned to leave. He stopped at the door and turned back to Ron. "On a side note, I've heard that the Chudley Cannons will be looking for a new Keeper at the end of the season in eight months and as Mr. Potter has already agreed to try out for the open Seeker position…well Mr. Weasley, it's something to think about while in Azkaban."

III

Harry watched the proceedings with the Wizengamot with a sad sigh. He knew that Ron was unhappy with his sister's choice in life partners, but to go this far…it was a little extreme.

It had been almost too easy for Harry to trace the magic signature left on the paper to Ron's wand. Plus as soon as Harry confronted him about it Ron told him everything. Harry almost felt bad for the youngest male Weasley. Ron was confused and angry and he refused to see just how in love Ginny was with her two boys.

It was almost sad, Harry mused as he fell into step as Ron's guard. It was sad that Ron was so close-minded. But he had always been like that with every boy Ginny had been seeing. Even when Ginny had been dating Harry, Ron had been a little crazy about the ordeal. Harry guessed that seeing Ginny with two people who Ron despised was enough to send him over the top. Harry just hoped that Ron came to his senses before he managed to estrange himself from Ginny forever.

III

The wedding dress was beautiful. It was all white and shimmery with light blue highlights that served to accentuate the clean lines and intricate stitching. But the girl wearing the dress was even more radiant. Her red hair was clipped into a cascading waterfall of curls down her back and the dress fit her small figure perfectly, but it was her smile that truly made everything so perfect.

Ron sighed and turned away from the scene. He remembered his wedding with Hermione and how he had felt. He could see the same nervous smiles on both Malfoy and Zabini's lips that he himself had held watching Hermione walk gracefully down the aisle. He remembered the glowing happiness and absolute love that had surrounded Hermione and saw it echoed in Ginny.

"Blaise Zabini do you take Ginevra Weasley to be your wife, bound to your magic and your soul for all eternity?"

"I do!"

"And do you take Draco Malfoy as your husband, bound to your heart and your life for all eternity?"

"I do!"

Ron watched as the vows were repeated and Malfoy smiled a quick flash of happiness both of the times he said, "I do!".

Then all attention was placed on the girl standing between them.

"And do you, Ginevra Weasley, take Draco Malfoy and Blaise Zabini as your husbands, into your house and heart, with magic and life, to tie your soul irrevocably with theirs for all eternity?"

"I do!"

And they did.

III

Ginny tugged her shirt down over her bulging stomach and grimaced. She was glad that Dragon's Wear, Draco's clothing shop had expanded to include clothing for pregnant women, but there were very few shirts that were large enough for a woman pregnant with twins.

When they had returned to their home they had found that Lee Jordan had somehow managed to secure their positions in all of their jobs. Draco had immediately taken his shop and, using the Malfoy fortune as he now had full control of his family inheritance, had branched into a huge corporations spanning both the Muggle and Wizarding world. Dragon's Wear clothing had become a family commodity that both the poorest and richest families could wear.

Blaise had bought out the pizza shop and expanded it to become the best bakery/pizza shop in Europe. He also had branches spanning both the Muggle and Wizarding world and everyone wanted a taste of his famous pizza.

Ginny was still working at the grocery store but Lee had moved on to bigger and better things with the twins joke shop and had left the entire establishment in her capable hands. She was going on maternity leave in two days as she was entering her eighth month of pregnancy, but until then she still frequented the store.

Ginny finally got the shirt on straight and stomped into their tiny kitchen with a scowl on her face.

"I hope you realize that this is your fault?" She asked at the two smirking boys. "I'm having two baby girls, one from each of you thanks to that spell from St. Mungo's, and it is definitely all your fault!"

Draco and Blaise laughed happily and circled their wife in a hug, kissed her on the cheek, and promptly went back to their breakfasts.

Ginny stomped over to the refrigerator and wrenched it open angrily but there was a small smile on her face as she looked for her breakfast.

She loved her boy's so much and they would never, ever, be separated again.

THE END

III

A.N. This is the epilogue! I will not be posting another chapter and there will not be a sequel.

Thank you, everyone, for your reviews. I loved reading every single one and they make me feel so happy. Every review makes me feel that I'm doing something right with my story. Just knowing that so many people enjoy my fanfiction makes me want to write even more.

I hope everyone loved my story just as much as I loved writing it. As this is the end, I would hope that everyone who has taken the time to follow my story, chapter by chapter, will review and tell me what they liked the best, and the worst, about this fanfiction. I want to know everything.

Thank you all again.

Mell8


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